


Love Can Change A Story

by mirabile



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: A little bit of kink, Complete, Draco's POV, Draco-centric, Drarry, Enemies to Lovers, Falling In Love, Fluff, Loss of Virginity, M/M, POV Draco Malfoy, Pining, Romance, THE FEELS GAWD, and so should you, but i have chosen to ignore that, happy end (i promise), it's just fiction dude chill, not really slow burn but there is some build up, yeah i know they are technically children
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:34:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23637646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirabile/pseuds/mirabile
Summary: Ugh, It's always Harry-Potter-this Harry-Potter-that. Draco Malfoy hates that attention-grabbing bastard. Completely. There is not another emotion regarding the Potter boy in his heart at all - or is there?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, what you should know about this fic is that I started writing it six years ago. I posted a first draft of the first two chapters on fanfiction.net back then, and worked on it on and off ever since. I never thought I'd ever finish it, to be honest. But I did. So you get to read it now. Please keep in mind that this has been written over a long period of time, and while I did edit it, it may not be perfectly consistant. And I know the beginning is the worst part, it was a long time ago and my English wasn't all that great back then (it's not my first language), but as soon as you get to chapter three, you get to the good stuff, I promise!! And if you come here from ff.net to finally see this work finished, thank you for your patience, I'm sorry it took so long.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The way Draco sees Harry suddenly changes quite radically, and Draco calls a secret meeting with the boy he has always been obsessed with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fair warning. The writing in this chapter isn't all that great. Sorry. But I was a child when I wrote this six years ago. It get's better, I promise, just power through it!!

1997, Draco’s sixth year

It was five in the morning, but Draco was wide awake. His bed felt cold, cold and lonely. The temperature in the dungeons was never very warm and the Slytherins were used to that, but he was not used to the loneliness that was colder than ice.  
Shivering, he pulled the blanket up to his chin and thought about the time when his bed hadn’t been lonely, when he had never woken up because of the cold but stayed awake to watch the person next to him sleep. Or, when the person next to him wasn’t asleep, doing something even better.  
His heart ached when he thought about the old times, times that would never be again. The pain felt so real, as if a frozen blade would slowly bore into his chest. It made him feel even colder.  
Lucius Malfoy, Draco’s father, would yell at him if he saw him like this.  
“What are you doing, weeping like a babe about things you can’t change? If the Dark Lord could see you like this, what would he think? Get your goddamned arse up, before I kick it for you! My son, MY son does not weep”. Then he would slap his face.  
Draco could hear the blonde man as if he stood right next to his bed.  
I can’t continue like this, he thought. I have a quest; I can’t abandon my purpose because I’m feeling lovesick.  
Draco made a decision. He would not mourn long lost times; he would concentrate on the Here and Now.  
With a sad smile, he closed his eyes. He would try not to think about the past, but he didn’t have any control about his dreams.

1990, Draco’s first year

Everybody was talking about this Potter-boy. The black-haired, skinny orphan. The little kid who defeated the Dark Lord. The boy who lived.  
Draco spat on the ground. He had offered the ungrateful brat friendship, but that cocky bastard would rather be with that red-headed Weasley boy.  
It was the first time that somebody had denied Draco something he wanted. His family was one of the wealthiest in England and one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. His father was an aristocratic wizard with good name, and a member of the Hogwarts Board of Governors. His blood was pure for generations, but still, Potter preferred the company of that flea-bitten, poor Weasley-boy with a wand that shows the unicorn-hair and a recycled rat from his brothers.  
Draco highly despised the whole pack. Potter, Weasley, and, especially the mudblood-girl Granger that they always hung around with.  
All the other students seemed to love Potter. He was not exactly handsome, but still, the little girls couldn’t stop giggling and blushing when he walked past them.  
Potter was the youngest Quidditch player for 100 years and in his first game, he caught the snitch spectacularly, leading the Gryffindor team to victory.  
Supposedly, he also killed a troll that was about to eat a helpless girl, defeated a 3-headed dog, and found a way to get rid of Filch’s feared cat Mrs. Norris, and all that in just a few months. Potter didn’t miss an opportunity to win glory.  
Draco was pretty sure that the last two things were just idle rumours (Where would something as big as a 3-headed dog hide without anybody noticing?), and Mrs. Norris was still stalking around in the school hallways.  
There were only a few that Draco could talk to openly. His Slytherin friends didn’t like Potter either, but mainly because of the Quidditch-loss he caused them. No one had a reason to truly despise, to hate him, like Draco did.  
Anyways, Draco still got his satisfaction. With his friends Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, he didn’t miss an opportunity to make Potter’s life miserable. It became Draco’s main purpose, he loved to terrorize, torture, and bully Potter and his little friends.  
He swore to himself that he would make their lives suck as much as possible.

1994, Draco’s forth year

In the fourth year, everything changed. No one did notice, not even Draco himself. He didn’t suddenly start liking Potter, no, the slimy little prick finding a way to manipulate the Goblet of Fire and become a fourth Champion only fuelled his contempt.  
However, after all the time it became more and more tiring to pick on the glorious “Hogwarts Trio”, and Draco didn’t try to bully Potter with all his heart anymore.  
Then the day of the first contest came. All four Champions had to defeat a monstrous, giant, fire-breathing dragon. Draco was excited for this day. He had a foible for violence. Potter had bad luck that day. His opponent was the Hungarian Horntail, well-known as the most dangerous dragon ever.  
When Potter stepped on the field, Draco could tell easily that the black-haired boy couldn’t really comprehend how dangerous the situation was. He stood there alone, with just his wand. It was impossible that a fourteen-year-old could cast spells that were powerful enough to trick a dragon and steal the golden egg in its nest.  
Potter raised his wand. “Accio!” Nothing happened. Draco wondered where Harry had learned that spell.  
The mudblood probably taught him. But how did they know that he would need that spell?  
“Accio!”, Potter shouted again. This time his firebolt came flying to him.  
This little shit! He knew it! He knew he would have to battle a dragon and he was prepared for it, I bet my ass!  
He cursed Potter with all bad words he knew. He was a definitely good at flying and showed his skills as a seeker at every Quidditch game, even Draco had to admit that, but Potter struggled against the Horntail.  
The dragon was chained to the ground, but Potter kept mocking it and flying around its fire-breathing head, so that, with one powerful stroke of its wing, the dragon broke the chain and set after Harry. Both disappeared out of Draco’s field of view. Several seconds passed, then minutes, and no one knew where they were at.  
This was the first time when Draco felt something else, something different, something he had never felt before, especially not for his official arch enemy. It was not hate, not loathing, not even jeer or mischievousness.  
Draco was worried. He was seriously concerned about Potter’s safety. He hoped that Potter was well and that he would manage to steal the egg and that the whole battle would be over soon without major injuries. Draco feared that Potter would be injured, or even killed.  
And the worst was: Draco could not explain why. He had always wished the worst onto the dark-haired, skinny boy with the great story, and in return, Potter has never showed any kindness to Draco. However, now he felt some kind of strange concern for the boy who lived.  
All his emotions and feelings were hidden behind the mean, sarcastic smile Draco wore like a mask.  
When Harry returned, Draco managed to make a disappointed face and he didn’t spare on comments about how the pathetic little Potter should have been eaten, even if he was honestly glad that the boy who lived was still alive and more or less fine.

From that day on Draco thought of Harry in a different way. He still tried to make everybody think he hated him, but while they had their quarrels in the hallways, he didn’t think about the endless pain that he would like Potter to feel, he thought of his magical, dark green eyes and his glossy black hair. And he hated Potter for how he made him feel.  
When they had classes together, he could hardly follow the teachers anymore. Draco felt as if he was bewitched. He spent every second awake thinking about Potter. He didn’t even leave him alone while he was asleep, the bastard. But the dreams were a beautiful escape. They were so realistic that Draco started wishing to be with Harry like that in real life as well.  
There was just one problem: He needed to talk to his arch enemy. Potter didn’t even know about Draco’s mixed feelings. How could Draco manage to talk to him alone when his crush was always surrounded by his friends?  
After he stalked Harry for a whole week without success, he decided to try the traditional, girly way and wrote him a note.

“Potter, come to Myrtle’s bathroom, tomorrow at midnight to. Come alone.”

He didn’t sign the short invitation, because he knew that if he was honest, Potter wouldn’t come, at least not alone. Myrtle’s bathroom seemed like the perfect location. No one ever came there, and the teachers wouldn’t be suspicious if there were any voices or other strange noises. Draco hoped that Potter would be curious enough to follow the short instructions.  
The Slytherin boy was not naive enough to be unprepared. Before the meeting he sneaked up to get rid of the Mourning Myrtle.  
“Stupefy”, he whispered and pointed his wand at the ghost before the girl could see him. Of course, a bathroom was not a very romantic location for a first date, so he tried his best to clean the place up. He swept the floor and polished the mirrors until everything was neat and shiny.  
After he was done, he needed to return to the Slytherin Dungeon, otherwise his friends would wonder where he was.  
He tried his best to seem like the sarcastic, mean bully that the other Slytherins knew and loved. The hands of the antique clock seemed to move in slow motion. Draco could manipulate others like a king, he could make Crabbe admire him and make Goyle steal whatever he wanted from the kitchen and he could make them bully everyone who didn’t do what he wanted, but he couldn’t speed up time.  
At ten, he went to bed, even if he knew that it would be impossible for him to sleep.  
“Are you tired yet, Draco-sweetie?” Blaise Zabini asked with a mocking smile. His fellow Slytherins seemed to think that it was an unbelievable witty comment, most of them burst into laughter. Draco chose to ignore them. He was not in the mood for a quarrel like that.  
Usually, he would be too proud to let anybody be sassy with him, but this wasn’t a usual night. This night would change everything, Draco could feel that. His heart was beating twice as fast as usual and he felt a nervous tingle in his belly, as if he had hundreds of butterflies in there. No one else had gone to bed yet, so Draco was alone. He took out a little mirror and comb and checked his hair. He wanted to look good. It would be the first time that he could sincerely talk to the boy that had fascinated him for years.  
Now he realized that Potter had always been special for him. They hated each other, but they also needed each other more than anyone else. And now that Draco had looked through the hate, he could see something different.  
He had no idea what would happen. Maybe Potter would run away as soon as he recognized Draco. Maybe he would not believe him, maybe he would laugh. Maybe he would tell the teachers. Or maybe, and that was the worst possibility, Potter would never even come. 

At eleven, almost everybody was sound asleep. A few were still chatting in the common room, but they would go to bed soon, at least Draco hoped that they would.  
At a quarter to midnight, everything was quiet. Draco got up quietly, he knew that if he made any noise, he would be in trouble. Big trouble. It was almost completely dark, but Draco knew the dungeona well enough to find his way around it without bigger problems.  
“Malfoy?”  
Draco cursed. Why did Zabini not chose another night to demonstrate how long he could stay awake?  
“Don’t mind me. I am not even here” Draco could smell firewhisky. Some of the boys always smuggled booze into the castle and had drinking competitions. Hopefully, Zabini was drunk enough to believe him.  
“But I can see you… You are right… In front of me…”  
“No, you are dreaming.”  
“I’m not dreaming, I’m not even asleep, I’m not a little pussy like you… going to sleep at ten…”  
And with these words, he passed out.  
Damn, I was lucky… Please let nobody wake up now…  
The castle was completely empty. At night it was hard to believe that there were ever people in the old corridors. Not even the ghosts were floating through the walls.  
Draco reached the bathroom without any problems. He was still early, and Potter would probably not show up for a few minutes. The hands of the blonde boy were shaking of nervousness. Myrtle’s ghost was hanging in the air.  
There were steps approaching. Draco prayed they were Harry’s. The bathroom door opened, but there was no one standing there.  
The dark shade of a person appeared where there had only been air before. 

“Malfoy?” Harry looked as if he just saw a dead man walk. The confused expression made him look even more handsome to Draco.  
“Potter.” It was the only thing he could think of. He managed to smile nervously.  
“Why the hell did you want to talk to me? Is that one of your dirty little tricks?” Malfoy thought of hundreds of things he could say – cheeky comments about what dirty tricks he knew, soft compliments, or medieval-style confessions of his love – but not a word left his lips.  
“What is your fucking problem” Harry was completely outraged. Draco felt as if somebody took control of his body. He only watched himself when he took Harry’s hand gently and pulled him closer to him. Their hearts were beating incredibly loud and in the same rhythm.  
“What made you think I had a problem?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco sulks about being rejected by Harry and then comes up with a new plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh so I know the writing in this is still a bit cringy, but you're almost at the part where it gets good! Don't give up now!!

Harry took a step backwards and ripped his hand out of Draco's loose grip.  
"What the actual fuck? Are you completely mental now, Malfoy?"  
Apologetically, Draco raised his hands.  
"I.. I just wanted to talk to you. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."  
"Great job, bastard. Now what ridiculous game are you playing?"  
Draco was on the verge of tears. It seemed like Harry would not even give him the chance to explain his feelings. In his head, this moment had played out a lot easier.  
"Look Harry, I just..."  
"Harry? Since when do you call me by my first name, Malfoy?"  
Draco's face turned red. If he could just find the right words to say. If he could just say any coherent string of words. But he was just overwhelmed with anxiety, frustration because of Potter's refusal to listen, and something else that he still could not quite put his finger on. Was it... lust?  
The Slytherin boy shyly gazed upon Harry's warm face. The emerald-green eyes with the fascinatingly long black lashes, the messy, yet shiny hair, the thin zig-zag scar on the otherwise smooth forehead. Perfection. Suddenly, he realized that he had never shared such an intimate moment with anyone. No girls were walking by and giggling at him, no smart-ass mudblood could distract the green-eyed boy now. He felt a dozen rattlesnakes in his stomach, rattling rigidly.  
“Did you tell me to meet you in a bathroom at midnight just to weirdly stare off into space and grin sheepishly?”  
Harry was visibly annoyed. “Look I don’t know what in the name of Merlin’s dingleberries is wrong with you, but I am okay with not knowing, and frankly, I don’t care about you or your problems.”  
“Listen, I just wanted to talk to you!” Draco’s voice was still shaky, but he hoped that Harry would not notice.  
“About what?” Harry rolled his eyes. “That you should be Hogwarts Champion, or your regrets about me not being eaten by that Horntail?”  
“No! I’m glad that turned out okay and that you are not hurt! Honestly!” The word “disbelief” was written all over Harry’s face. He was tense, constantly on the watch for Crabbe or Goyle chanting some weird and painful spell that would push him face down the toilet. Then Draco would say something smug about Harry winning the “Goblet of Water and leave him there to be found by Peeves or Mrs. Norris.  
“Alright, this was fun, Draco, but I’m tired and I have to do some nasty Potions homework for tomorrow, so goodnight” An irritated Harry stormed off before his fears could become true.  
“Wait-“, shouted Draco “Maybe, I… could… help you” His voice got more quiet with every word until he whispered a barely audible “Harry”, but the Gryffindor didn’t hear his offer.  
Feeling sad and lonely, Draco walked back to the Dungeons. He snuck past a still passed-out Zabini who smelled like that one pub near Diagon Alley from where he once had to pick up his massively pissed mother after his parents had had a particularly nasty fight.  
Laying in his bed, he replayed their meeting over and over again in his head. Then it suddenly struck him: Harry had called him “Draco”.

Black hair, green eyes. The boy looked like thin, pale, demigod. He was far away, so far away! Draco ran towards him, his hands raised, ready to embrace the boy in front of him. But with every step he took, Harry was further away. Suddenly the floor disappeared and Draco fell into a black abyss, hearing Harry’s voice mumbling unintelligible words. He fell, and fell and –

Draco awoke feeling anxious just like before getting home over the Christmas holidays. Goddammit, it was almost Christmas as well! He would have to face his father again, and according to the letters he had received from home, things with his parents weren’t going too well. His mother Narcissa had apparently tried to get sober for a month, which ended with her ending up with alcohol poisoning after an almost successful week. Lucius was not much of a drinker, but when Narcissa was doing badly, he was in a bad mood as well.  
Draco dreaded the holidays. Especially now that his parents were disappointed that Potter was the Hogwarts Champion instead of Draco. He always envied Harry who could just stay at Hogwarts.  
It was time to get up, even though Draco felt like sleeping forever.  
When he walked into the great hall for breakfast, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, he looked like his typical, smug self. On the inside, however, he was burning with fear and regret.  
Harry already sat at the table and was talking to Ron and Hermione. Why did he always have to hang out with them? What was so special about a Weasley and a Mudblood?  
Sulking, he ate his porridge. The others knew not to disturb him when he was having his moods. When Pansy Parkinson had talked to him after Draco had had a confrontation with his father, he had covered her skin in painful, green blisters. It had taken Madam Pomfrey a week to get rid of them completely. After that incident, people just avoided him when he was grumpy.  
“He thinks he’s so special, with his firebolt and his damn fourth year magic. I mean anyone hear can fly a damn broom, and Accio is not that special, I would have done that better, I would have deserved to be the Champion, at least I don’t need a mudblood to teach me stuff.” Draco stabbed a sausage with his fork.  
“Yes I know, he is like, so overrated, and that hair, he really needs to be given a haircut – with a sword”  
“Shut up Parkinson, no one bloody asked you!” Draco rushed towards the exit to be alone.  
“What the hell is wrong with him?”, Pansy asked the remaining Slytherins.  
“Well someone’s on his period!” Blaise joked and the entire table exploded with laughter.  
Draco was hurt by hearing his so-called friends make fun of him. Nevertheless, he promised himself he would keep it together and get through the day. Yet another time Harry Potter caught his eyes. It pained the fair-haired boy to see his nemesis’ banter on the other table.

Draco forcefully ignored everything around him the entire day. Usually, potions class was alright since Professor Snape liked him, but nothing was alright that day.  
“It might have come to your attention, that a special event is scheduled for the 25th of December this year”, Snape said as the class was almost over. “The yule ball, an old Hogwarts tradition, is being revived this year in celebration of the Triwizard Tournament. Every student, fourth year and older, can attend.”  
Draco heard his teacher’s voice as if his head was wrapped in cotton. Something about a dance, at Christmas. Wonderful. As if he didn’t have enough problems already. Now he had to try and get a bloody date! He knew that most Slytherin girls would be more than flattered to go to the dance with him, but there wasn’t one girl he could stand to spend an entire evening with. In fact, he was by far not as fond of girls as the other boys his age were. He didn’t really care about any of them.  
When he was walking to the Dungeons, he passed Harry and his posse, of course!  
“Malfoy! Do you have a date yet?” Harry’s words hurt, did he not understand that the only person Draco wanted to take to the dance was –  
Wait.  
Draco froze as an insane idea formed in his head.  
He knew it was unlikely, Potter despised him!  
However, if there was a chance, any chance at all, no matter how small, that he would say yes, Draco had to try!  
Even though he knew it was hopeless, he decided he would.  
Draco was going to ask Harry to be his date for the Yule Ball.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While everyone is getting dates for the dance, Draco sets up another meeting with Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay you made it this far!! Congratulations, from now on, the writing is much better. So you might actually enjoy this chapter!

“Operation Dance” was not going to well. Draco didn’t have a lot of experience with courtship. None at all, actually. He had never felt any desire to woo a maiden fair. A week had passed since the announcement, and the only interaction he had with his desired mate was a disgusted “Potter”. The boy needed to come up with a plan.  
In the evening, when he was supposed to write a four-page essay for transfigurations, his classmates were talking about the dance.  
“I heard that at least five Hufflepuff girls asked Harry Potter out, and he said no to all of them”  
“Wow, we should all know that Hufflepuffs are beneath the great Harry Potter!”   
“I bet he will just go to the dance alone, or with Granger. He’s just that pathetic.”  
“So, lads, do you have dates yet?”, Draco interrupted the petty banter.  
“I do! I’m going with Bastien, right, dear?” Sadie Baldock exclaimed and hugged her boyfriend. These bastards did always have to rub it in. Somehow, half of the house seemed to be dating all of the sudden.  
“Why do you ask, does little Malfoy need help getting a date?” taunted Bhupen Shastri. Draco had never even talked to that kid, and yet, he had the audacity to try and tease him.   
“Shut up, I don’t even need a date, dances are for girls and babies anyways. I don’t even want to go.”  
“Come on, you can admit it, maybe I can try and help you pick up some chick. I know that any Slytherin girl say yes if you just asked!”  
“What did I just say, Baldock! I don’t want a date. I don’t need to talk to you fools. Good night.” He stomped out of the common room and buried his face into his pillow. Bloody jokers, always making fun of him. He would show them. He would go to the ball with the Hogwarts Champion who turned away girl after girl.  
Maybe there was a reason Harry was not interested in the girls, maybe he, like Draco, preferred the same sex.

Draco took his quill and some red ink, he thought a proud Gryffindor would like red, and wrote a letter.

Beloved –

No, cross that, he could not start that over the top, he needed Harry to take the letter seriously!

Dear Harry,  
You know me since your first year at Hogwarts, I do not want to reveal my name just yet since it might upset you, but we have always had a very peculiar relationship. With that I do not necessarily mean good. I sincerely want to apologise if I have ever caused you any harm or discomfort, physically or emotionally. Please understand that I cannot always express my emotions in a satisfying way and have to compensate by picking on others. Since you were “The boy who lived” and got all the attention since first year, you were a perfect victim for me to vent my frustration. I do not want to have this guilt hovering above me anymore. I want to come clear, and tell you the truth.   
I do not know if I can ever make up for my behaviour, but if you want to give me a chance, meet me in the forbidden section of the library, at midnight. By now you know who I am, do you not? Please consider my offer anyways, we have a lot to talk about.  
Yours faithfully,  
DM

He cringed at the words he just wrote. He was never good at expressing himself with words. It was insane, Harry would just burn the letter at best and make fun of him at worst. But Draco still needed to talk to him! He had to! He couldn’t live like this anymore, he needed to come clean.  
Maybe not all at once. Small steps. First, tell Harry that he didn’t actually hate him. Then, befriend him, then ask him out. And maybe his plan would be successful after all. So he rewrote the letter to something a little less over-the-top.

Dear Harry,  
I know we haven’t always gotten along, but I want to put this petty feud behind us. Isn’t it awfully immature to fight while you have so many much more important things on your plate?   
If you want to accept this peace offering and give me another chance, meet me in the forbidden section of the library, at midnight.   
Yours faithfully,  
DM

Yes, that was more like it. That letter won’t scare Harry away. Hopefully. But it was an honest attempt at extending an olive branch, and that was the best Draco could do.  
It was already eleven, but Draco needed Harry to get this letter as fast as possible, so he snuck out of the dorm and to the owlery. His owl, that he had secretly named Henry V, was sleeping on the perch. Luckily, Draco would recognise his proud eagle owl anywhere, even in almost complete darkness.  
Henry’s cooing sounded quite disgruntled when he was awoken, but as a faithful owl he listened when his owner ordered him to deliver the letter to Harry Potter in the morning.  
Now the boy could just try and get some sleep. He would see Harry’s reaction in the morning.  
He tiptoed back to the Dungeons, hoping that no-one would hear him. He was in luck. Even the common room was empty. He eased himself into the soft bed, and for the first time in weeks he fell asleep with a hopeful thought in his mind: He would see Harry’s reaction in the morning. 

Never before had Draco been so nervous upon entering the Great Hall. He scarfed down a dry slice of toast while anxiously awaiting the owls to deliver the mail. Even though their tables were far apart, Draco tried his best to keep an eye on Harry.  
Then, finally, hundreds of owl’s wings sent a whooshing sound through the hall. If he only had something that would make it possible for him to hear what people on the other side of the hall were talking about! If only there was a device, or a possibility to extend his ears, so that he could listen to Harry’s reaction. Sadly, there was no such thing, and there probably never would be.  
It was obvious that there was something going on at the Gryffindor table. Was it because of the letter? Draco’s head started to turn red as he felt the embarrassment spread in his body.   
“How could you ask her to the dance!” a shrill voice rang through the hall. Some Gryffindor girl, Draco didn’t know her nor did he care, was apparently not too happy with one of her house mates asking another student to the dance. Whew, apparently all that drama wasn’t because of the letter, Draco thought and eventually remembered how to breathe again.   
Harry Potter was sitting calmly; he had tucked the letter underneath his cup. Draco just hoped that he had read it and would accept his offer.

The classes were quite uneventful, as always. Zabini set his quill on fire in Transfigurations, how that happened was beyond him. The last time Draco had seen Professor McGonagall this disgruntled was when Harry was chosen as the second Hogwarts Champion.   
The last class of the day was History of Magic. Usually it was a bore, but Draco was excited since he would finally get to see Harry again.   
Professor Binns was floating around and babbling something no one in their right mind would have the patience to follow. Draco had the perfect seat, diagonally behind Harry, and simply stared at him for most of the class.   
The thick, black hair, the pale skin, the cute glasses, the way his shirt was just never tucked into the trousers neatly and how his uniform was just always slightly wrinkled. And his hands! His beautiful hands, just casually playing with his quill. How did he never notice any of this in the previous years?  
Harry was scrawny, all skin and bones, but in Draco’s eyes there was a certain elegance about him that had an effect on the boy that he couldn’t explain with words.   
Class was almost over, would Draco rush out as quickly as possible to avoid Harry, or would he try to hang back and maybe get a chance to talk to him, or at least assess his chances, before tonight.   
Before he could make up his mind, the bell rang and Harry left the room swiftly as a deer. Well that relieved him of the burden of choice. Frustrated as he was, he packed his books into his bag a bit too eagerly and dropped his edition of An Anthology of Eighteenth Century Charms. When he had picked it up, he was the last person in class, apart from Binns, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. As he passed Harry’s desk on his way out, he noticed a crumbled piece of parchment. With shaking hands, he picked it up. He didn’t have the guts to read it in front of Binns, or in the hallway, or anywhere around people, so he rushed to the bathrooms and locked himself into one of the stalls. His heart was almost jumping out of his chest as he unfolded the note.

Malfoy,  
I don’t know if you want to play love, peace and harmony for real or if this is just the most stupid prank you ever wanted to play on me, but fine! I’ll just play along! It’s not like I have a bloody riddle on which my life might depend to solve or anything.   
You better have a damn good explanation for this.  
See you at midnight, asshole.

Well, it could have been worse!   
At least he said he would come. Hopefully that meant alone, like Draco asked him to.   
Now, waiting. Again. This time, Harry would know who requested the meeting, so he would hopefully not react as badly as last time.  
They would meet in the library this time, in the forbidden section where they should be on their own. Filch had been quite busy keeping the boys from sneaking into the Beauxbatons quarters at night, even though he had heard rumours that Alicia Spinnet had been caught in a cabinet with one of the French students. Draco had made a snarky comment about how foolish love-struck girls act; the hypocrisy of which now hit him in the face like a bludger.  
Wasn’t the library a quite romantic location? Well, more romantic than a bathroom with a dead girl in it.   
Every cell in Draco’s body vibrated with agony until it was finally time to sneak out of the dorm. It was quiet, there wasn’t a soul around. The moon shone brightly through the windows.  
Finally, the library. Now he just had to get to the forbidden section. Luckily, no-one at Hogwarts had ever had the idea to lock the doors to places where students were not supposed to lurk about. Creak! The door swung open to reveal a dark silhouette, almost invisible, only slightly illuminated by the moonshine.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco meets Harry in the library and runs into someone familiar on his way back to the dungeons.

“Potter”  
“Malfoy”  
“You… came” The boys stared at each other in silence.   
“Of course I came! I wanted to figure out what in the name of Merlin’s underpants is going on with you.”  
“Well I told you, didn’t I? I want us to leave all this petty rivalry behind us” Draco bit his lips. In the darkness Harry’s eyes seemed to shine like green stars.  
“Rivalry, Malfoy? I am the Hogwarts Champion, you are a Slytherin with rich parents, we aren’t rivals!” Why was Harry always so angry?   
“Listen, Potter, do you have any interest at all to accept my peace offering or not?” Draco was not a patient boy.  
“Why? Why do you want to suddenly get along, after you enjoyed nothing more than to humiliate me? All those years, Draco, all those years you bullied me, you antagonized the other students, you abused my other friends, too, Hermione most of all. Do you just want to pretend that never happened?” Harry’s voice was getting louder with every word. Draco desperately tried to keep his cool.  
“I want to fix it! Of course I did stupid things, I can’t just undo that! I would, but I can’t, not everyone gets a time turner.” Draco’s eyes became wet and his vision started to blur.  
“Screw you, don’t pretend you’re sorry. You already hated me the first time you saw me.” Harry crossed his hands in front of his chest and took a deep breath.  
“That’s not true, Harry, I just wanted a friend!” Please believe me you stupid boy, I’m just telling the truth! “I grew up alone in a giant house without any other children to play with. I never had friends before, only my parents who-“  
“Yeah at least you had parents, I’m sure your childhood was horrible!”  
“The world doesn’t revolve around you”, Draco was fighting back tears and his voice was threatening to break. “Yes, He killed your parents, but yours is not the only family who suffered in the war!” This was the first time that Harry truly looked at Draco. He noticed the red of the pale boy’s cheeks, the teary eyes, the way his lower lips were slightly trembling. In this moment, Harry started to believe that Draco didn’t mean any harm.  
Never before had Draco allowed himself to be this vulnerable, especially not in front of people. Harry cleared his throat.   
“Hey, uhm, I don’t know why, but I am glad that you want to leave this stupid feud behind you. I am happy to accept your offer.” He offered to shake Draco’s hand, almost like Draco’s offer of friendship at the beginning of their first year. Their handshake was firm, even though both their hands were shaking.   
“Thank you, Harry. I knew you would understand” He grinned and felt like a huge weight was lifted from his mind.  
“It’s okay, I’m also glad we can finally move on. Just one thing, could you please stop picking on Hermione?”  
“Yes, of course, I’ll not pick on anyone anymore I promise!” He was serious, he wouldn’t risk antagonizing Harry again over that Mudbl- over Granger.  
“Good. I’m glad to hear that. And uhm, if you need to talk about anything, just hit me up, okay, because I doubt that you can have sincere conversations with the Slytherins.” A knot formed in Draco’s stomach. He had never talked about his childhood and even now that Harry offered to listen, he didn’t know if he would ever be able to.  
“They’re not all bad…”, he half-heartedly defended his housemates, but he knew that Harry was essentially right. “But thank you, I’ll consider your kind offer. So, how’s it going with that egg?”  
“Great, awesome, I’ve almost cracked it, honestly!”  
“Good, good to hear!” An awkward silence arose between the former enemies.  
“Draco, it was a lovely night and so on, but I kind of need to go to sleep”  
“Yeah, sure, just hang on a moment we’re going to Hogsmeade this weekend, how about we meet up? I know a little pub, usually they don’t let in students, but my father has connections, so I can go there. And you can as well if you’re with me.” This was basically asking Harry out. Hopefully he would just take it as a Hanging Out With A Friend, not in a romantic way.  
“I’ll think about it. It’s really late now.”  
“Okay, just meet me at the Oak Tree Square in Hogsmeade if you decide to come.”  
“Sure. Goodnight Draco.”  
“Goodnight! And thanks for meeting me”

This had gone surprisingly well. Draco was pleased with himself. He gave Harry a bit of time to get back to the common room so that there wouldn’t be two people sneaking around and making noise at once. He would meet him in Hogsmeade, he knew it. 

What Draco didn’t know just yet was how infatuated Harry was with him. Ever since he declined the boy’s offer of friendship on the Hogwarts Express, he had thought that Draco despised him because of it. Harry didn’t want him to be his enemy, he had never wanted to. He had just never had the guts to do what Draco had done and ask him to let the past go. He was fascinated by the other boy’s sudden affection.   
When Harry had finally managed to get back to the Gryffindor dorms and into his bed, he had only one thought on his mind: He would soon meet Draco again.

Minutes had passed, minutes that felt like hours, since Harry had left the library and Draco decided it was time to try to get back to the Dungeons.   
The Corridors were dark and silent. Or were they? He was sure he heard steps somewhere. Please don’t be Filch, I can’t deal with him right now, this night was way too great to end in detention… He was in luck, theses weren’t the usual scuffing steps of the caretaker.   
Silence. Did the other person notice him? There was nowhere to hide, so he decided to tiptoe forwards.   
There was a person leaning on the wall, apparently trying to disguise themselves behind one of the suits of armour. Didn’t he know that person? Despite the darkness, he recognised her: Alicia Spinnet!  
“What?? Is that you, Malfoy?” She whispered. Her hair was dishevelled and her make up messed up.  
“Spinnet! What are you doing here?”  
“That’s none of your business! And I could ask you the same!”  
“So are those rumours actually true?” Draco couldn’t believe it, a Gryffindor Quidditch hero was sneaking out at night to meet a Beauxbaton.  
“Shut up, someone might hear us!” Alicia was in obvious agony. She was less than pleased about being caught off guard.  
“Pray tell me, who’s the lucky guy?” Draco couldn’t help himself, he knew it was stupid to stop and chit-chat with a Gryffindor in the hallway at one in the morning, but the situation was just so ridiculous that he had to ask.  
“Malfoy, I know you only want to make fun of me, but please, don’t make a fuss right now, I just want to go to sleep, and I’m sure you do as well.” She had a pleading look on her face. “If I get caught again, I will be in so much trouble, and Fleur-“ She caught herself before she could say anymore.  
“Fleur? You mean you and… Fleur Delacour?” Draco was perplexed, he did not expect that.  
“Yes, and we should both really go back to our dorms now, seriously.”  
“Sure, goodnight” Still baffled, he entered the dorms. The entire school was getting more and more curious every day since the Triwizard Tournament had started.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco and Harry chat about this and that during their hogsmeade da- i mean platonic meetup.

The weekend came quicker than expected. Draco didn’t get the chance to talk to Harry before the students left for Hogsmeade which was probably for the best since both boys needed to mentally prepare for the meeting.  
How am I going to survive this? What do people even do on dates? Talk? What can Harry and I talk about? We hardly know each other, well getting to know someone is probably the point of a date. No but this isn’t a date, this is just a friendly meeting with a platonic friend.  
Draco was nervous. His knees were weak and his palms sweaty. He would soon get to talk to Harry again, not secretly at night, but during the day in Hogsmeade! They would still keep it a secret, though, Draco didn’t think that Harry would like to tell Granger and Weasley just now. But they had time, they had all the time in the world to figure it out.  
When Draco arrived at Oak Tree Square, it was empty. Even though Hogsmeade was a small village, it still had its nice and not-so-nice parts. Oak Tree Square was definitely in the not-so-nice part. It was a bit of a walk from the town centre and surrounded by lowlife pubs and stores of which even Draco wasn’t sure what they were selling. No one would expect Hogwarts students here, so it was the perfect spot for a meeting that should not become school gossip. Hopefully, Harry wouldn’t immediately be turned off by the area.   
“Hey” Draco heard a voice behind him. Immediately, his heart was beating faster and he got goose bumps all over his body.  
“Hey, thanks for coming” Draco said with a nervous grin. Did he sound sincere enough? Did he look friendly and inviting?  
“Yeah, sure” Harry shrugged. Oh no, he didn’t seem very invested in this!   
“So ahm, do you want to take a walk or something? The Scottish Highlands are absolutely beautiful, I heard.”  
“Okay, sounds good.” Harry bit his lip. Why did he do that? “Would be a shame if we studied in Hogwarts for years without ever getting to enjoy the scenery!”  
They walked next to each other in silence for a few minutes. It was painfully awkward.  
“These”, Harry cleared his throat. ”These hills are really pretty”  
“Yes totally. I like how everything’s all… brown” How do normal people talk to people? Draco only ever talked to people he didn’t really care about, like Crabbe and Goyle, and all the other Slytherins.  
“And the lakes look really nice.”  
“It’s called “Loch” here.”  
“Ah” Harry didn’t seem to want to talk about Scottish geography in great detail.  
“Is that Yule Ball thing as big of a deal in Gryffindor as it is in Slytherin?”   
“What, the Slytherins aren’t too cool to go to a stupid school dance?” Was Harry just teasing or was he actually serious?  
“Well, Slytherin has some airhead girls who care about this stuff, too.”, Draco said in a dry tone. That triggered a little chuckle in Harry, so he was just teasing earlier, thank god! “So you are not going then?”  
“Hah, I wish I could just skip it! But-“, Harry rolled his eyes. “As a Hogwarts Champion it is my great honour to open the ball.” He kicked a little rock.  
“Open the ball? Wow, what a responsibility!” That was the best he could do. He knew that there was no chance of Harry taking him to the ball now, he would not want to debut on the traditional yule ball with Draco Malfoy in front of everybody. Especially not in front of Granger and Weasley.  
“As if I didn’t have enough bloody problems already! I mean, I was almost eaten by a fucking dragon! And I need to figure out this egg riddle, while trying to get a date for a dumb dance that I don’t even want to go to and somehow learn to dance and the teachers still expect me to do my homework, as if I had no other worry in the world. Why can’t this place be a normal, boring school for once, with normal students, where no one has to fear for their life?”   
“Yeah, you didn’t really have a good start here, I mean, you almost died every year at least once!”  
“Tell me about it. You don’t know how nice you have it. How peaceful it must be without constant eminent mortal danger!”  
“I mean, those Dementors last year were pretty scary for all of us.”  
“Yeah but you didn’t have to deal with thinking some crazy escapee dude was out to kill you, and your best friends seemingly immortal rat didn’t turn into freaking you-know-who’s servant”  
“You’re right. It sounds pretty exciting, but then again, I do not envy you.” Draco stared straight ahead for a while. “I get that I could never understand what you went through, and boy, I wouldn’t want to, but no eleven-year-old boy should ever have to do what you had to.”  
Harry had hardly ever heard anyone talk to him like that. Not praising him, not scolding him, just listening. Even though Draco himself had said that he could never truly relate to Harry’s struggles, he felt understood.  
“Thank you, Draco, that’s really kind of you.” More awkward silence between the two boys.  
“So, uhm, did you figure out your egg thing yet?” Draco made another attempt at friendly conversation.   
“No, I hate this stupid thing. It just screeches incomprehensible stuff. It makes my ears bleed if I try to listen to it for too long. Even Hermione can’t figure it out.”  
“That sucks.” Draco had no idea how to decipher it either.  
“Anyways, there’s still a lot of time until whatever the hell the other contest is. For now I need to find a date. Do you have one yet?”  
“No.” He could just ask him, what did he have to lose? Well, maybe the freshly gained trust and the little seeds of friendship he had planted so painstakingly. “I was thinking of asking…” Just say it, dammit, just bloody ask him!   
“Yes?” Harry raised an eyebrow. No, I can’t do this right now, we are just friends, you don’t ask your friend to a dance that’s weird.  
“Pansy”, he blurted out with a scarlet red face. Now you fucked it up. There’s no way back from here. He’s gonna dance with some Gryffindor chick and probably fall in love with her, and make out at the ball. There goes your dream of asking Harry Potter out.  
“Parkinson? Alright, yeah you two always got along well with each other, didn’t you? I can only tell you get on with it. I tried asking Cho Chang, but she is already going with Diggory.”  
“Aw that sucks” Draco faked compassion. Fuck you Chang you don’t bloody deserve him. Diggory is a dumb cunt anyways.  
“Yeah I mean it’s not like I actually like her”, Harry said with clearly hurt feelings. “I just need someone, anyone, who can kind of dance and would dance with me” Shit, that’s literally me. Draco loved dancing; he always had, even though no one knew besides his parents. His mother had allowed him to take lessons, while his father was yet again embarrassed by his son.  
“I mean if you need help with dancing, I could probably try and teach you” Why had he said that, why?   
Luckily, Harry didn’t seem to find the offer too weird. He was used to three-headed dogs, rats turning into men and bathrooms with secret doors, so he had a different definition of “weird”.  
“Uhm, I’ll think about it.” That meant “no” in every language. Damn. “It’s getting kind of late, we should probably head back to the village”   
They walked back to the square in silence.  
“We should probably split up here so that we don’t return together. That would be kind of weird, don’t you think?”, Harry suggested.  
“Yeah you’re right. I had a nice time anyways. It’d be fun to meet up again sometimes.”  
“Yeah, sure. See you!” Harry waved goodbye and walked away.  
Draco gazed after him sadly. Why was their time together already over?  
“See you!”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry asks Draco for a favour, a favour that brings them closer together than ever before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah there are some random POV shifts in the chapter, sorry about that

It was a week until the ball and Draco hadn’t made much progress in the quest to win Harry’s heart yet. He had half-heartedly asked Pansy out a few days ago. At least she seemed to be pretty excited about the whole thing. Draco dreaded the 25th of December more every day. He hadn’t had another chance to talk to Harry since their platonic Hogsmeade date. He was frustrated with himself. As he was walking down to his potions class, he looked down on the ground in order to avoid making eye contact with all the excited students. He couldn’t handle their happiness. Someone bumped into him, he looked up – into Harry Potter’s face!  
“Watch where you’re walking, Malfoy”, the boy said contemptuously and discreetly brushed his hand over Draco’s robe. The blonde boy was petrified. He felt a mixture of butterflies and hurt feelings because of Harry’s dismissive behaviour. Why would he suddenly be so rude? Did Draco do anything to offend him? He put his hands in his pockets and was about to go to class when he felt a crumpled piece of paper. Trying to not freak out he ran to Professor Snape’s classroom – he could not risk being late by reading the note now. Harry probably just wanted to tell him that they should no longer meet anyway.   
Snape was mumbling something of the use of Lily of the Valley in healing potions and Draco’s best efforts to pay attention failed. Should he risk a glance and getting caught by Snape?  
“As you can see, the potion is of a pale yellow, but upon adding powdered ivory and squid ink, it turns red.” Snape demonstrated how to make a potion to instantly cure the common cold.  
I can walk into a freaking muggle drug store anytime to get some cough drops I can afford to miss like two steps and look at the paper. Snape likes me he won’t even notice. It’s not like we’re learning something actually interesting, like how to make the Draught of Living Death! He took the paper and read it. In very sloppy writing it said:

Draco, I’m kind of embarrassed to ask you this, but hey, you offered, so I’m just accepting your offer, and the whole thing was your idea anyways. I need to learn how to dance, I can’t figure it out by myself. I need your help, so if you’re still okay with teaching me, then please meet me in the Transfigurations room at midnight.  
\- Harry

Draco had forgotten how to breathe while reading the note. He would get to teach Harry how to dance!   
“Mr Malfoy.” Snape looked at him with a stern face.  
“Yes?” Did Snape just ask him a question while his mind was busy fantasising about dancing with Harry Potter, holding him tightly, touching his hand, their chests almost touching…  
“I asked you how you would prepare an Aegerum Potion.” Draco had never even heard of a thing like that.  
“Well, uhm, I would start with… Flea legs?”  
“You are supposed to pay attention, not daydream, five points from Slytherin.” It was obvious that Snape was livid. He hated subtracting points from his own house. The other students weren’t too chuffed, either.  
Great, now you let Potter get in between you and Slytherin’s success, if father knew about this!

Midnight approached and Draco got more and more nervous. He reviewed the dance steps he wanted to teach Harry again and again. The opening would be a simple waltz, anybody could learn it instantly; a few basic steps and simple aerials. Harry was small, but surely strong enough to lift him, well, the girl he was taking to the dance. It wouldn’t matter if Harry couldn’t lift him.  
Draco missed the dancing lessons at his home. He had to stop them when he started at Hogwarts, even though he got a few lessons during summer. That just wasn’t the same to getting to exploring new movements to new music every week.  
At 11:45 he snuck out of the common room. Luckily, everybody was already asleep. It was shortly before the holidays and the teachers had just hit them with homework like they were running out of time. Every student was exhausted, including Draco, but he had a man’s heart to win instead of worrying about his scholastic success.  
Why Harry had chosen the Transfigurations room, he didn’t know. Sure, there was enough room, but was it really wise to use McGonagall’s room?  
As he entered the room, it was still empty. He waited for a few minutes and grew more anxious with every second.  
If Harry got cold feet, I will actually jump out of this window right now. Just as he finished this thought, a slightly out-of-breath Harry burst into the room.   
“Sorry I’m a bit late, Peeves was fucking around with our common room, it’s not looking pretty in there, let me tell you!” He had green stuff smeared on his face and looked as if he had just had to fight Voldemort again.   
“Harry … Are you okay?” Draco was slightly worried about his friend. He probably wasn’t in the condition to relax and dance.  
“Sure, just get on with the teaching and stuff.” He waived his hand impatiently. “Canitis!” A beautiful waltz tune started playing.   
“Okay, ahm, the choreography is pretty simple. Let’s first look at the basic step of a waltz. It’s like this - one, two, three! One, two, three!” He demonstrated the steps on his own. “Just like, try doing the exact same thing.” He stood next to Harry and took his hand. “One step forwards, then two little steps sideways. Yes, really good. But-” He turned around and put his left hand on Harry’s shoulder. “You need to do this vis-à-vis another person, without stepping on their feet. Put your right hand on my waist. Also, the waltz is a traditionally close dance” With his right hand, he took Harry’s left shoulder and pulled him towards his body. “It was almost scandalous, back in the day, because young men and women were touching” He leaned even closer to his dance partner and whispered in his ear “Nowadays, of course, we would have to go a lot further to provoke outrage”  
A few seconds passed. Their hearts were beating loudly. Draco was slightly dizzy from the tension in the room.  
Harry cleared his throat “So, it’s one, two, three, right?” He shoved their bodies around clumsily.   
“Uhm, almost, just try not to move like a Lumberjack and more like a … graceful swan!”  
Harry giggled “That’s almost what McGonagall said!”   
“Well you should listen to the woman, she knows what she’s talking about! Now, do it again, but swan-like!” They swayed to the music for a bit. Draco felt how Harry became more relaxed. Good, he thought. Dancing is serious business, he can’t waste his attention on being stressed.   
Harry’s hand slowly travelled down to his butt. “You’re supposed to hold me by the waist, not any lower!” Draco pointed out. Harry blushed under his pale skin.   
“Sorry, I didn’t do it on purpose.”  
“It’s okay - not that I didn’t enjoy it”, he said jokingly and hoped that it would just come over as light-hearted banter between platonic friends. Harry blushed even more. Had Draco moved his hand a little closer to his neck, he would have felt his racing heartbeat.   
“You still need some practise with the basic step, you need to do it to the music! And let’s try to actually turn a bit this time!” As they waddled around the room, Harry quite a bit less graceful than Draco, who did his best to avoid Harry stepping on his toes. Draco felt Harry gently pulling them closer together with every step until their bodies were firmly pressed together. Their bodies started to harmonise with each other, and soon their awkward stumbling turned into graceful waltzing.  
“Wait a second, I’m getting dizzy!” Harry stopped to turn. “Whoa, all this spinning, it’s intense!” He lost his balance and Draco had to keep him from falling.  
“Should we take a break?” Draco held him firmly.   
Harry’s stomach did not just feel funny because of dancing. “No, it’s alright. I just needed a little moment.” They stepped out of their embrace.   
Draco was sure he had just experienced the best moments of his life. He got to dance with Harry Potter, he got to hold Harry Potter! “Right, let’s talk about the lift now” he had to interrupt this train of thought, otherwise, he would have started drooling. “You will need to hold me very firmly underneath my arms, like this. And then you just need to pick me up.”  
“I mean, you’re not that heavy, but I don’t think I can do that, I’m not that strong!”   
Draco unnoticeably rolled his eyes. Of course his strong boy didn’t trust in himself enough. “Just try it, you’re stronger than you think! When you’re in the moment, you’d even be able to lift Hagrid!”   
Harry took a deep breath and clutched Draco’s body tightly. He tried to pull himself together and collected his whole strength to lift the other boy. For half a second, it looked like he could do it. Then, he stumbled and dropped him clumsily.   
“Well it was a good start”, Draco remarked. “With a little more practice, you could do it.”   
Harry put his hands on Draco’s hips. “Okay, let’s try again” He picked Draco up, this time successfully. In his head, he had already congratulated himself, when he lost his balance and fell backwards, Draco landing on his body.  
There was an awkward moment of silence before either one of the two realised what had happened. Awkward? No, actually, it was more of an overwhelmed, lost for words, embarrassed but blissful moment. Draco looked down at the pale angel below him. His eyes. His beautiful, warm eyes. He could get lost in their depth. A mystical green, like a forest you walk in and never find your way out. Like a calm lake in the Alps, deep, almost bottomless (Draco had gone hiking in Austria with his parents once. It had ended with Narcissa almost exposing magic by cursing the muggles who had the audacity to make her Jagatee not strong enough; Lucius blamed it on her proneness to mountain sickness and hurried Draco to finish his Mohnzeltn. They never went on holiday again after that incident. In this moment, of course, Draco was not thinking about his messed-up family, the cabin his mother almost burned down, or even delicious Mohnzeltn. All he could think about was right in front of his face: Harry James Potter.)   
Instead of getting up, or at least increasing the distance between their faces which, in this moment, was slightly less than five inches, Draco ever so slowly lowered his head. They weren’t touching yet, well, apart from their chest, legs, crotch,… but their faces were still separated by a significant amount of air.   
Draco still couldn’t stop staring into Harry’s eyes when he noticed him glancing down at his lips. They were being pulled down by a force stronger than gravity at the rapid speed of 0.0032 m/s. Had Draco witnessed anything this agonizingly slow himself, he would have lost his mind. Draco was not a patient person, although he had gotten better having to wait for his dates – could these be called dates? – his meetings with Harry Potter, yet he enjoyed every second of this moment, the moment he had dreamed about for a short eternity.   
The distance was a mere matter of millimetres now. Draco felt Harry’s breath on his face and gasped for air as he noticed he had forgotten to breathe.   
He wasn’t actually sure whether the beating he heard was his own heart’s or Harry’s but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered, apart from the fact that he never dared to dream being this close to The Boy Who lived.   
Finally, their lips brushed over each other. There was no audible sound, no visible spark, but in their hearts, in their souls, the most colourful fireworks danced in the black night sky. It was better than Draco ever imagined, and it wasn’t even a real kiss. Just the brief, delicate contact of two soft pieces of skin connected to two different bodies that could easily be brushed off as unintentional, but they both knew it wasn’t. That knowledge, however, didn’t change the fact that, for some reason psychologically related to forced masculinity, a touch of internalised homophobia and the fear of being honest with one’s self, they felt the need to pretend it was.  
“Oh my god I’m so sorry are you okay?”, Harry asked after snapping out of his trance.  
It took Draco a second to take note of Harry’s words and another one to come to terms with the moment between them being over, in the past, a distant memory.  
“Yeah, I’m fine, uhm, I didn’t mean to ki- to fall on you.”   
“Well it’s my fault for dropping you.”   
Draco realized he should probably get up since this was not a conversation to be had on the floor. He held out a hand that was gladly accepted by Harry.  
“You did pretty good though.”  
“Thanks, but maybe we should call it a night” Harry couldn’t look Draco in the eye. He needed some time to think before he would be able to platonically dance with him again.  
“Sure, wouldn’t want you to throw your back out before the next task!”  
“God, don’t remind me of that rotten egg.”  
“You’ll figure something out, Harry. I believe in you.” Draco meant it. He knew Harry would find a way, he always would.  
“Thanks. Good night, Draco” Harry rushed out of the room. He hadn’t intended to come over this cold, but he was too confused and exhausted from the late night exercise that the only thing he wanted was to curl up in bed and fall asleep as quickly as possible, preferably without being tormented by thoughts and desires and memories and wishes that would surely never come to pass. Naturally, only the first part was fulfilled a few minutes later.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco meets Harry again and agonizes over the dance.

It was Christmas Eve, the day before the Yule Ball. Draco woke up feeling weirdly excited, even though he didn’t know why. He didn’t in fact have a reason to be excited. Harry and he hadn’t really talked since their practise session. Partially because Harry was still embarrassed for dropping Draco, partially because they had also had to worry about schoolwork.   
He went to breakfast. It was early and he was one of the first people in the Great Hall. Good. He preferred not having to deal with people in the morning, especially since everyone seemed to be talking about that stupid dance all the time.   
As soon as he sat down, he felt something brushing over his back. He turned around and saw Harry walking away from him, making a subtle “follow me”-gesture.  
The boy guided him to Professor McGonagall’s class room which they technically were not allowed to enter, but Harry, The Boy Who Lived, Hogwarts Champion, was above the rules, as usual.  
“Draco. Just one more time. I practised with Parvati, but I just don’t get it.” Harry seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. No surprise, he had to worry about opening the school dance in front of hundreds of people and would have to perform a potentially mortal task in two months.  
“Oh you asked that Patil-girl out?” play it cool Draco, play it cool.  
“Yeah kind of a last resort I guess.” He shrugged.  
“Well she is a nice girl, and very… pretty.”  
“Yes.” Harry didn’t seem too happy with his date. He was quite an ungrateful bastard, but this did spark some hope in Draco.  
“Why didn’t you ask her to come as well? It would kind of make sense to practise with the person you will open the dance with.”   
“Well I uhm, she’s busy.” Draco wasn’t fooled by Harry’s pathetic lie. He knew the other boy was embarrassed to ask him, Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin, for help. Harry wouldn’t admit it to anyone if his life depended on it.  
“Okay, well, I taught you the steps, and you did alright, considering you never danced before. The lifting should be fine with a skinny girl. I mean I’d be happy to practise but..”  
“If you don’t want to help me that’s fine. Really. Sorry I asked. I guess I’m really just overly anxious about this whole thing.” Harry took a small step backwards and crossed his arms.  
“No, I’d do anything to help you, but there’s really not much of a point to practising with another person.”   
Neither one of them realised this, but Harry was unconsciously appalled by the thought of dancing with anyone but Draco. Even though he didn’t think he was anything but horrible, the movement of their bodies harmonised so well their dancing actually looked fine.  
“Okay, but let’s just go over that choreography one more time anyway”  
“If you like.” Draco would get to hold Harry again!  
Their feet stepped the right steps at the same time, their hands held at the right height, their arms were tense, Harry held Draco’s body close enough to his. It looked like they were a couple that goes to dancing classes every week. Somehow, Harry even got the lift right. If he would do this well with Parvati, there was nothing to worry about.  
“Wow, you did practise!” Draco said with a cheeky grin.  
Harry blushed. “Yes, a bit. That step-stuff’s kind of hard, but now I think I get it.”  
“You’ll do great. That last try was basically perfect.”  
“Yeah, but that’s with you, with Parvati it’s, I don’t know, not that easy.”  
“Aw, are you nervous dancing with a girl?” why did he say that, he sounded like those assholes who freak out if a boy touches a pink shirt.  
“No, but I might get a bit tense in front of the students and teachers of three schools!” Harry’s voice had an annoyed undertone. Draco realised he should probably not try to tease him anymore before that dance was over.  
“Good luck anyways! I’ll see you at the dance I guess.”  
“Yeah, sure. And, also, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this, but, uhm, the thing that happened. That was just an accident, right?” Harry was talking about the kiss. Well, the almost-kiss, but their lips had touched.  
“Of course, uhm, sorry again.” Forcing these words out was immensely painful. A part of Draco died on the word “Sorry”.  
“Okay good, because I like, wouldn’t want you think anything of it. Like funny stuff happens, doesn’t it.”  
“Ha, it does. I wouldn’t even dare thinking anything, I mean I basically forgot about that entire thing already. It’s all in the past.” He was rambling, and aware of it. But he couldn’t stop his stupid, apologetic mouth from babbling.  
“Good. See you!” Harry left the room with a bright red head.   
“Bye!” This whole “Harry hastily rushing out of the room”-thing was getting a bit annoying. Also, it was quite rude.   
The thought of having to see Harry dance with someone else was almost unbearable. Why couldn’t he just swap roles with Parvati and she could hang out with Pansy and talk about their dresses or whatever girls do while he danced with Harry? He deserved it more anyways, he invested time and work into building this painfully platonic relationship, Parvati just happened to be lucky.   
He needed to kill some time; there was no use in obsessively dreaming about opening the dance together with Harry, close to him, feeling like he was alone with him. He had already planned and prepared everything he needed for the dance: his robes were on a hanger next to his bed, he paid close attention to not get any stain or, god behold, wrinkles in his exquisit outfit, his shoes were polished, his tie even matched Pansy’s robes and, for decency’s sake, he had bought her a pale yellow rose. Not red, obviously. Even though Pansy had had a crush on him since year one, Draco was very aware of that, he wouldn’t give her a red or pink love-rose. He would give her a yellow friendship-rose. Maybe she would take the hint. Apart from that, they would look like an actual couple, at least outfit-wise.   
He wondered if Harry would give a rose to Parvati, and if, which colour would it be? He probably wouldn’t, Draco didn’t think him much of a romantic. It wasn’t even Parvati, Harry’s actual date, but Cho Chang he was jealous of. He knew that Harry didn’t really want anything from Parvati apart from a partner to open the ball with. But with Cho, things were different. It had been school gossip for a while that Potter had a crush on Chang, and judging by how jealous he was of Cedric, that rumour was to be believed.   
Cho was very pretty, and, as far as Draco could judge, quite smart. Also, she was no mudblood, like that darn Granger girl – wait, Draco reminded himself, he had promised to not use that word anymore. He had given Harry his word he would work on leaving this prejudice behind him. Frankly, his dislike of Hermione was just based on jealousy, since she was another pretty girl Harry liked. And she spent more time with him than anybody else, apart from Ron Weasley. Draco didn’t think that, objectively, there was anything more between those two than a deep friendship forged by trauma and defeating the Dark Lord together several times.  
I will stop thinking about her this way, for sure, he said to himself, I’ll stop thinking bad about anyone for their ancestry.   
It was not Draco’s fault that he was raised by old-fashioned wizards who told him from an early age that muggleborns were unworthy of magic. His parents had shoved their dehumanising Death Eater agenda down his throat since before he could even walk. Paired with their inability to show him any love, he had turned into a bratty bully with no self-esteem who tore down others to make him feel better about himself. After a bit of self-reflection, he became painfully aware of that. He would change.  
If not for himself, for Harry.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, it's the Yule Ball. Will Draco get to dance with his crush?

Two hours until the ball started. Two hours, and Draco hadn’t even begun to get ready yet. Christmas day had been relatively uneventful; he had gotten his presents and letters from his family. Apparently, they missed him. Funny, because usually the holidays were the worst time of the year since he was forced to spend it with his relatives. Being around his father for weeks was draining. He had written a polite thank you note to his mother, hoping she hadn’t drowned herself in eggnog before it arrived.  
He didn’t know what to write his father. Lucius was just disappointed whatever he did, so there really was no point in trying to appease his ambition for Draco to be the perfect pure-blood Wizard.  
The thought of not having to sit through a lengthy Christmas Dinner listening to his aunt’s arrogant ramblings and watching his mother go through two bottles of 300£ Sauvignon by herself and being pierced by his father’s judging, disapproving stares if he dared breathing too loudly cheered him up, especially since there was a chance of dancing with Harry while Lucius and Narcissa would get into their third argument, probably about the choice of music in the sitting room. The first one was usually about the choice of drink Narcissa wanted to serve for aperitif, the second one was about the last-second amendments Lucius wanted to make about the seating arrangement. He never wanted to sit next to the Lestranges while Narcissa insisted he should, by now, be comfortable around his in-laws. The fourth argument on Christmas Day, while the issue was random, usually ended in a few broken plates and Narcissa locking herself in the bathroom crying. Draco was sure he would not miss out on anything apart from emotional trauma.  
He looked in the bathroom mirror. This face would need some work if he wanted to hook up- dance with Harry Potter. He didn’t have high hopes that Harry would not completely ignore him, like he usually did in public, but still, it wouldn’t hurt to try. With exception of his feelings. Those would, indeed, get hurt if he failed.  
With a tweezer, he plucked his eyebrows to perfection. Then he applied a relaxing, moisturising facial mask with extra exfoliation effect on and laid down in bed for a while, picturing him and Harry in their beautiful dress robes, dancing a classy Viennese Waltz when the music in his head suddenly turned to Richard Wagner’s Treulich geführt, the Wedding March. He realised he should probably wash his face and get on with styling.  
Draco was not ashamed of wearing a bit of make-up. The other people would hardly notice the reason he was looking so damn fine that night. He put on a light foundation, contoured his face and even used some mascara. After being satisfied with his looks, he took care of his hair and styled it with plenty of gel. Ten minutes to go and the only thing he still needed to do was put on his gown. Prim and proper, a perfect young man. His father would be proud at his looks.   
Now he would go down to the Great Hall, making his fairy tale entrance descending the staircase while everyone was watching and envied him for his handsome looks. Harry would wait at the bottom, then hold out a hand which he would gladly accept. They would walk into the Great Hall together, arm in arm, and all the other guests would clap as they danced underneath a chandelier. Or something like that.  
At least, he walked down the staircase and some people looked at him. Not in awe, more like annoyed and disinterested. Pansy, not Harry, was waiting for him. He didn’t see Harry anywhere. He was probably already in the hall preparing for the dance.   
He gave her the rose and they entered the hall together. It was absolutely swarmed with people in unusually festive gowns. Everyone seemed to be excited. Couples were already making out in every corner and the dance hadn’t even officially started. Through the masses of hormonal teenagers, Draco made his way to the front of the Hall, dragging Pansy behind him. He would want to see Harry’s dance from the very best spot.   
The lights went out, it became quiet. The music started, the doors opened. The eight debutants entered. Everyone was clapping. Fleur was her beautiful, perfect self, as always. Draco noticed how she winked at Alicia Spinnet who responded by blowing her a kiss. Cedric and Cho seemed to enjoy themselves as well. What Draco didn’t expect was Victor Krum with Hermione Granger. Granger! And the world-famous Bulgarian Seeker Krum? He was definitely impressed. Then he saw Harry. He looked stunning in his dark-green robes. They stood out from his pale skin in a gorgeous way. Lord, how was this boy so sexy? He didn’t, however, seem comfortable at all. In fact, it looked like he had some trouble not passing out while Parvati Patil had the time of her life and waved at her sister Padma who didn’t seem that happy about going to the dance with Ron Weasley.   
Draco and Harry made brief eye contact; Draco mouthed “Good Luck”. Harry smiled and did a quick upwards nod in acknowledgement.   
The music started and Harry still looked at Draco’s face when Parvati got his attention by loudly whispering “Take my waist”, audible to most people. Luckily, Harry didn’t have enough time to worry about that embarrassing moment, since the most embarrassing moment of the evening had just begun: The dancing.  
In Draco’s opinion, he didn’t do too bad, sure, he didn’t follow the rhythm correctly most of the time and messed up some of the lifts quite badly, but at least he didn’t step on Parvati’s feet more than twice. It could have been worse.   
Hermione and Krum seemed to be perfectly in tune the entire time. Weasley must be pissed, Draco thought. One by one, the teachers and then the students poured onto the dance floor.   
Politely, Draco asked Pansy if she wanted to dance which she affirmed happily. They swayed to the music for a bit, but it didn’t really do it for Draco. Pansy was not a good dancer, he couldn’t show off all the cool figures he knew, so it was quite boring for him. He was looking for Harry. As soon as the champions were excused, he had seemingly fled the scene. The Patil sisters were nowhere to be seen either.   
Poor Pansy seemed to notice that he was not really focussed on dancing and pulled him to the edge of the dance floor. “Let’s sit down for a minute, shall we?”, she said and released Draco from the burden of having to pretend to be engaged in their awkward slowfox.  
He excused himself and went to look for Harry. At the very back of the room, he spotted Weasley seemingly dying inside. Even though it wouldn’t lead to anything, he went over to talk to him.  
“How’s it going”, the perfect, most boring conversation opener when you have nothing to talk about.  
“Malfoy?” Draco’s presence didn’t exactly cheer Ron up.  
“Yeah that’s me. So, where’s your date? If I were you, I wouldn’t miss the chance to dance with Padma Patil!”  
“Shut the hell up Malfoy, you don’t know what you’re talking about. And also, I don’t dance.”  
Draco made a “Pff” in disbelief. “So why did you even bring her? Don’t you think that maybe she wants to dance? Quite the gentleman, Weasley.”  
“Don’t you have anyone else to pester?” In that moment, they heard Padma laugh brightly She was flirting with a pretty Beauxbatons-girl. Served Ron right. He, though, only seemed to pity himself. Padma and the French girl started dancing slowly, and tightly. Their arms were wrapped around each other. Draco was internally cheering for them.   
“Well I guess she won’t shed a tear over you abandoning her tonight.” Draco said with a smug smile.   
“Fuck you, she abandoned me!” Ron lashed out.  
“Your fault if you ignore your lady. Now excuse me I have to go.”  
Ron didn’t even reply, he just wanted to go back to his dorm and get out of this horrible cheesy hall filled with gruesomely happy people.

From the corner of his eye, Draco saw Harry leaving the Great Hall and rushed after him, bumping into several disgruntled students. Some Hufflepuff spilled his drink on Angelina Johnson’s dress because of him, and Draco prayed she didn’t see him, she would totally kick his ass.  
Harry was running up the stairs. He probably wanted to be alone. Draco didn’t know why or what upset him, but he couldn’t resist the temptation of getting to talk to him in private. He saw him heading towards the first-floor bathroom. The place of their first date, no, serious meeting – how romantic! The pale boy forcefully closed the door behind him – a definitive indicator that he didn’t want to talk to anyone.   
Draco hesitated in front of the door for a moment, then decided to knock anyways.  
“Harry? It’s me, Draco, uhm, would you mind some company?”  
“What? Did you bloody follow me?” Harry asked in disbelieve.  
“Yeah sorry I just wanted to look after you, you looked a bit stressed out. Can I please come in?”  
A few seconds passed. Then Harry opened the door. “If you must.”  
Draco released a breath of relieve. “Thank you. Do you want to talk about it?”  
“About what?”  
“Well whatever stressed you out”  
“Man, I don’t even know what my problem was. I just kinda needed some quiet.”  
Draco smiled at him “Hey that’s okay people can get overstimulated in situations they are not used to, especially if that many people are around and it’s super noisy.” He had read that in a muggle self-help book once.  
“What?” Harry didn’t really know what these smart-sounding words meant.  
“I meant that it’s okay that you needed to get out of the hall if you didn’t feel comfortable there.”  
“I just… I just felt like everyone was constantly looking at me and making fun of me for messing up at the opening.” Harry avoided eye contact and bit his lip.   
“You did great, Harry! You were amazing!” Draco didn’t understand how Harry didn’t see how good he was.  
“No, I wasn’t. I was out of step, I messed up the lifts, I didn’t even start at the right time. It was horrible. Parvati hates me now, probably, for embarrassing her.” Harry looked like he was about to start crying.  
Draco took Harry’s hand. “Look, everyone was so excited for the dance, they didn’t even notice if you made any mistakes. And Patil loved it! Didn’t you see how happy she was getting to dance with you in front of everybody? Though she might be kind of pissed at you for ignoring her since then. Padma Patil already found herself a nice French girlfriend since Ron’s been a bit of a dick to her.”  
Harry took a deep breath. He still cringed at the memory of his performance, but Draco’s words were really comforting. Never had he had anyone to talk freely about his feelings. “Thank you Draco. You’re really… kind for helping me.” He managed a grin.  
“No problem.”, the pale, but somewhat blushing boy replied. “I hope you’ll feel better soon.”   
“I already am, but, uhm, why are you holding my hand?”   
Draco jerked his hand away “Sorry! I didn’t mean to!”  
Harry stepped closer. “Hey, it’s okay” he took his hand again. “Thank you for being there for me. You’re a damn better friend than my supposedly best friends.” He pulled him into a hug. It wasn’t the awkward hug he expected. It was a warm, soft, comforting hug. Not in any way unpleasant for either one of the two.  
Draco smelled Harry’s mix of stress-sweat and cologne. He didn’t want this moment to end. “It’s okay, dear” he whispered into Harry’s ear. “It’s okay.”  
When they pulled apart slowly, his hand wandered up to Harry’s neck while the other one was still firmly gripping Harry’s. They deeply looked into each other’s eyes. Seconds passed while they just stood there, holding each other.  
Draco had never felt so safe with anyone before. It was a moment of infinity. “Harry…” he started a sentence he didn’t know how to finish, and it didn’t matter. The other boy knew what he wanted to say, even if he himself didn’t.  
“Ohhhhhh my god, get out of here with your silly romance!” Myrtle. They had completely forgotten about the moaning ghost that lived in the bathroom.  
Draco blushed. “We really don’t want to bother you, Myrtle. Let’s go somewhere else” he pulled Harry out of the bathroom. Why did that ghost have to ruin their moment?   
“Draco, do you maybe want to go down and dance for a bit?” Harry asked with a scarlet-red face.  
These were the most beautiful words Draco had heard in his entire life. “I though you would never ask!” He replied cheerfully.  
They went to a more secluded dance floor where many other couples were slow dancing to romantic soft rock. They didn’t take note of them; they were too busy with their own teenage romance.  
A susurrant cover of Aerosmith’s I Don't Want to Miss a Thing came on and Draco led Harry to the middle of the dance floor. In this moment, they didn’t care what the others thought of them. They hardly even acknowledged their presence. The only thing Draco’s eyes saw was Harry’s handsome face.  
They swayed slowly to the music. They held each other tightly. Obviously, they weren’t perfectly in tune, and didn’t exactly look like Frank Astaire and Ginger Rogers, but who cares? Certainly not these two.  
Somehow, they managed to get closer and closer to each other with every song and at some point, while Elton John was playing, Harry’s head ended up resting on Draco’s shoulder.  
“I’m really happy to be here with you right now. Thank you.” He whispered into Draco’s ear, who responded by hugging him even more tightly.   
They danced, hugging closely, until the lights went on again and all the students had to go to bed.   
Draco and Harry went to the stairs hand in hand. When they had to part ways, they softly hugged one more time.   
“Goodbye” whispered Harry with a rough voice and kissed Draco on the cheek.  
Parting was bittersweet. But at least Draco felt Harry’s lips burning on his face until he fell asleep happily to the sweetest of dreams.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco stumbles over the perfect place for a date with Harry.

Last night had really happened. Like, actually, really happened. It was reality. A brief, sweet piece of reality. Draco had laid in bed for hours, watching their dancing in his mind like a movie.   
The way they moved in perfect harmony, their hands touching, Harry’s head resting on his shoulder. Draco was so happy he almost started crying.  
“Are you awake yet?”, Pansy ripped him out of his daydream.  
“What? Yeah, I mean now I am” She looked mighty pissed off. He hadn’t even said goodnight to her yesterday, he realised, he had just ran away to look for Harry. He had treated her the same way he had criticised Harry and Ron for treating their respective dates.  
Ashamed of himself, he quickly got dressed and went to talk to her.  
“Hey, sorry about just running away yesterday. I was just, uhm, not feeling it. Needed some alone-time.” Hopefully, she hadn’t seen him dancing with Harry. The number one rule of school dances was “Never run away from your date and dance with someone else and get caught”.  
“Yeah I’m sure you were very much alone dancing with Harry Potter.” Oh shit, here we go. Draco was fucked. He wanted to apologise, explain, tell her it was nothing, and be honest about his feelings at the same time. The words seemed to be stuck in his throat.  
Before he managed to say anything, Pansy blurted out: “I thought you asked me to the dance meant you might like me. You don’t. I got that.” She didn’t seem to be mad, just disappointed. “And if you and Harry Potter are together now, I guess that’s it. I don’t care, I’ll get over it. Just don’t bloody abandon me in the middle of a fucking ball again, you asshole!”  
Of all the things he could have said, “We’re not together!” was the only thing to come out of Draco’s mouth.   
Pansy gave him a doubting look. “Well then ask him out, officially and unambiguously, silly. We both know you want to, what are you waiting for?”

Officially and unambiguously. That’s what Pansy said. And today, he was going to do it. Ask Harry Potter out officially and unambiguously.  
He was going to catch him after breakfast. It was still the Christmas holidays so they would have plenty of time to hang out. Draco just wasn’t sure what they should do for a date. It wasn’t like they could simply go see a movie or have dinner together since they were kind of locked into Hogwarts. Maybe just asking him to study together would be a good idea since Harry was surely busy with Champion business. But that would neither be unambiguous nor an official date.  
Maybe he should talk to Harry before actually asking him out. Yeah, that’s what he would do today. Talk to him, figure out how Harry felt about the situation, figure out if he, at all, would want to go out with him, and then, if he was absolutely sure, ask him out, officially and unambiguously.

Draco had missed breakfast, because he had spent his morning fantasising about Harry Potter, so he had to wait until lunch to catch him.   
While he was aimlessly walking around Hogwarts, trying to pass time until he could finally talk to Harry again, he came past Cedric Diggory surrounded by a bunch of giggling girls.  
“Come on, Ced, tell us!” She looked at him doe-eyed.  
Cedric laughed. “No, I can’t, it’s against the rules. So sorry, girls”  
Another girl tried to take his hand, which he quickly pulled away, and begged him even more obnoxiously.   
Apparently Diggory had figured out the second task already and was way ahead of Harry. Probably not something he should mention if he wanted to be successful with asking him out.

Deep in thought, he somehow ended up in the seventh floor and eagerly walked up and down the corridor thinking about how much he wanted to go on a proper date with Harry.   
I just need somewhere to spend some time with him. Alone, away from anyone who’d look at us weirdly. Somewhere we could chat, and maybe dance. A romantic room, candles, the scent of cinnamon and roses in the air, soft jazz playing in the back, maybe something sweet to eat like mousse au chocolat, and a comfy velvet loveseat where we could make out.  
Suddenly, Draco stood next to a door. It definitely wasn’t there earlier. He took a few steps back. It was still there  
Am I crazy, he asked himself. He decided to take a look inside.   
It was astonishing. A dimly lit love nest, complete with rose petals on the floor and dozens of candles. An inviting sofa, big enough for two if they didn’t mind sitting close together, music was playing from somewhere. Almost exactly what Draco had described to himself seconds ago, only the mousse au chocolat was missing. This was impossible! Hogwarts most definitely didn’t have a cheesy teenage-romance room.   
Draco stormed out and started to walk away. Halfway down the first staircase, he thought to himself that if Hogwarts had a perfect room for him and Harry to become closer, he might as well use it. He rushed back to see a perfectly plain wall. No door whatsoever.   
Am I crazy? Did I really just imagine a room?  
This was a messed up, magical place with tons of hidden passages and secret rooms, so Draco decided to retrace his steps. He walked up and down the corridor a few more times, more or less repeating the same inner monologue as before.  
The door appeared again.  
Draco opened it. A bunch of topless, life-sized Harry Potter cardboard cut-outs stared at him seductively. Wow, maybe he got side-tracked while decorating his dream date-room. He’d have to be more careful next time.  
Draco practised two more times, and, for the hell of it, imagined a pink cyberpunk room full of kittens and robots taking care of them while David Bowie’s Let’s Dance was playing on repeat. It was beautiful. He spent over an hour in there, petting kittens and singing along. Maybe he would show this room to Harry sometimes as well. For tonight, though, they would spend time in the other room, if Harry would say yes, that is. Now Draco just needed to wait for the proper moment to ask Harry Potter out. He needed to make sure to not blurt anything out, and only ask him when he was 100% sure he would say yes.

It was time to go to the Great Hall. Well, it was still a little early, but at least he would see Harry walking through the door.   
He was the first student to enter. It was slightly awkward, sitting at the Slytherin table all alone.  
Then – God was real – he saw Harry enter, also alone. When their eyes met, it was a moment of mutual understanding. They both went to lunch extra early to have a chance to talk alone. Because they were obsessed with each other.  
Harry speed-walked to Draco. “Hey”, he said.  
That truly wasn’t much to work with. “Heyyy... So that dance… Sure was something.”  
“Yeah, it was.” Awkward silence. They both had so much to say, but somehow couldn’t.  
“So, did you enjoy it?”   
“Definitely.”  
“That’s good.”  
More Awkward silence ensued.   
Then they both tried to talk at the same time.  
“So what I wanted to talk about-“  
“Actually I wanted to ask you- “  
“You first.”, Harry said.  
“Okay”, Draco paused for a second to gather the courage to ask him that question. “I was just wondering if, you know, you’d like to maybe go out sometimes?” Whatever happened to not blurting out these highly vulnerable words but instead waiting for a good moment to be 100% sure that Harry would say yes?   
“Wow.” That was all Harry said. One word. After Draco had just allowed himself to ask him a highly delicate question.  
They stared at each other for a while. Harry blushed. “I would very much like to” he then rasped before clearing his throat.  
“Good. I’d love to as well.”  
Other students started pouring into the hall, so they had to end their conversation. Draco squeezed Harry’s hand in goodbye and they parted in order to not catch anyone’s, especially not their friends, attention.   
Quickly, Draco bent forwards and whispered into Harry’s ears. “Come to the seventh floor after lunch, I have something to show to you.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco and Harry go on a series of dates in the magic room.

As soon as he had gobbled down his food, Draco ran up the stairs again and wished for the romantic room. He quickly checked if everything was how it needed to be. Perfection. No tasteless homoerotic statues this time, and the carpet was not too soft to walk on. One really had to be specific with the requests, but if one was, the room happily fulfilled every wish one had.  
Draco heard Harry’s voice outside. “Draco? Are you there yet?”   
He opened the door from the inside. “Yes, hey, thanks for coming. I found this amazing room, you’re going to like it!” He took Harry’s hand and led him inside.   
Harry’s face was a mixture of awe and utter horror. “What the heck? Did you decorate this room? How’s it even here?”  
Draco figured it was too early in their relationship to tell him about how he pined for him while walking up and down the corridor dreaming of their perfect room, so he just said “It’s a long story. Anyways, it’s private.”  
“And uhm”, Harry looked around in amazement. “The decorations are certainly something…”   
They sat down on the maybe a bit too small couch, so their thighs were pressed together by the sheer lack of space. An awkward silence ensued.  
“So, what is it you wanted to do?” Harry looked at Draco. His green eyes shone brighter than all the candles in the room.  
“Uhm, you know, chill… and stuff”, Draco replied, blushing. They started to chat about this and that. Harry talked about his friends Ron and Hermione quite a lot, and despite not understanding why someone as perfect as him would ever spend time with a Weasly and a Mudb-, a Muggleborn, Draco listened eagerly. Draco got to vent a bit about his father’s big expectations and his mother’s concerning drinking habits. Then, suddenly, silence ensued. It wasn’t the uncomfortable silence from earlier, no, it felt warm and comforting. Draco felt at peace.  
He looked into the other boy’s deep eyes longingly. “You are a handsome devil, Harry Potter, do you know that?” Wait, had he just said that out loud?  
“Uhh, thank you?” Harry blushed. “You too.”  
“You know, I’m so glad you actually gave me a chance. I always feared you would never forgive me for behaving like a total twat up until this year.” Draco bit his lips and looked down embarrassed.  
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect when you sent me that note, I was just curious. And I’m glad I was.” Was this still platonic? “Honestly, it’s nice to have some peaceful dates in between the mortal danger – and school dances.” He called it a DATE!  
“We can do this more often, every day if you want!“ Draco was so happy to make Harry happy.  
“Oh I’d love to, but I still need to figure out that egg-thing, and kind of keep up with homework. Snape will grill my arse if I allow myself anything, and you know it!”  
“We can study together, if you like”  
“Yeah, that would be nice.” Harry took Draco’s hand and put it on his face. “But let’s not talk about school or ponder life’s complexities now when there are so many nicer things to do.”  
Draco’s heart beat with the volume of starting fighter jet. What was Harry doing?   
“You have gorgeous grey eyes and I could get lost in their depth over and over again. Every time I look at you, I see something new that I haven’t cherished with all my heart yet. So I relish every pigment of your skin, every one of your golden hairs that surrounds your head like a halo, every long lash around your eyes until there are no more aspects of your beauty to be relished. Then I will worship all of them again.” Draco had never heard anyone say things so romantic, especially not to him. He was lost for words. Harry Potter, the too cool for school boy who lived could not possibly feel about him this way. Being overly soft and corny was his job!  
Harry moved even closer to Draco which meant he practically sat on him, and gave him a pleading look. “I know you feel the same way about me, or at least you somewhat like me. Otherwise you wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble. So please say something, so that I know I did not spend the entire morning trying to think of the most cheesy, romantic words possible to tell you how I feel about you just so I can embarrass myself.”   
Say something!  
“You… these were the nicest words anyone has ever said to me.” Draco couldn’t think of a nearly as eloquent confession of love.  
“Those were the most heart-filled words I have ever said to anybody.”  
“I feel honoured by your affection.” Draco said stiffly. He quickly bent over and kissed Harry’s cheek, like he did last night.  
“And hopefully the cheesiest words I will ever say. I don’t think that overly cutesy stuff fits me.”   
“Oh, I love it when you are overly cutesy, you can do that again tomorrow!” Draco didn’t try to hide that he was flirting anymore. Why would he? Now they both knew they had feelings for each other. Draco would never have to hide that ever again.  
The soft jazz music was still playing in the background.  
Harry took Draco’s arm, picked it up and put it around his body. He snuggled closely to Harry. With any other relationship, Draco would have thought they were moving too quickly. They had only just had their first date and were already cuddling on a sofa. But this was not like any other love, it was different because it was them. They had been pining over each other forever, they had repressed their emotions for so long, they needed some soft, therapeutic cuddles.

There was a comfortable calmness in the room, the only noise was the music and their heartbeat.  
“Harry.”, said Draco.  
“Draco.”, said Harry. This was not a literal “I love you”, but it was very close.

They just sat there for a few hours, sometimes talking about relatively insignificant stuff, but mostly just enjoying each other’s company.  
It was the most wonderful afternoon in Draco’s life. He had never before been allowed to just be close to a person without having to either dominate the conversation or being dominated. Draco and Harry were equals, both had their baggage, both feared what the future would bring, both had been longing for a relationship like this for the longest time. But most of all, both had been longing for each other. 

They had spent several more afternoons like this over the rest of the Christmas Holidays and enjoyed each more than the last. Draco got quite creative, decorating the room a little differently each time. No important conversations were going on during these dates. Sometimes they were dancing, sometimes they were teasing each other, sometimes they were gossiping, and sometimes they were just lying on the soft red carpet listening to the soft music.

Since New Year’s Eve was not really a special day in Hogwarts, they decided to spend it together as well.   
There were, of course, no fireworks in Hogwarts, but Draco had told the room to have a window to London where they could see the fireworks. He had absolutely no idea how this worked, but it only mattered that it did.  
Harry had picked Draco up at ten so that they could share his cloak of invisibility and wouldn’t get caught and they decided to have a goofy little two-person dance party until midnight. The magical DJ, created by Draco’s mind, played the greatest muggle songs of their time, from Smells Like Teen Spirit to I’m too Sexy, the latter resulting in Harry giving him a playful striptease.   
Shortly before midnight, they decided to settle down and relax on the couch to watch the giant hourglass count down the time until the year would end.  
“I’ve never had a proper New Year’s Eve, you know” Draco said while massaging Harry’s shoulders which were a bit sore from the energetic dancing.  
“Yeah, me neither. Wizards don’t seem to celebrate it for some reason, and at the Dursleys’, I was just always locked away while they had a celebration or visited people or whatever”  
“You were locked away?” Draco didn’t believe his ears.  
“Yeah, in a tiny cupboard under the stairs, I didn’t even have a proper room until I got my Hogwarts letter that was addressed to the cupboard.”  
“Wow, that’s messed up. I mean I at least had a room”  
“At least? You can’t tell me that Draco “Poshest of Posh Boys” Malfoy didn’t get everything he ever wanted.” Harry surely meant this in a teasing way, but it was still a bit hurtful for Draco.  
“You know, I didn’t have the nicest of childhoods either. Have you ever met my father?”  
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound insensitive. So, your father is… like that at home as well?”  
“He’s always like that. We don’t really get along. If he knew about us, he would probably kick me out of his house and cut me out of his will”  
“Wow, I didn’t know that. The Dursleys wouldn’t care, they hate me anyway.”  
“Why would they hate you? You are a part of their family!”  
“Yeah I guess that’s the problem.” Harry’s mouth jerked sadly. “Sorry to be a downer”  
“Hey, it’s okay” Draco smiled at him and pulled him on his feet. “Look, it’s almost Midnight! I’m so excited for the fireworks!”  
“Me too”, Harry said. “I don’t even think I’ve ever seen any.”   
Draco felt sorry for the damaged little boy who was holding his hand. He wanted to never, ever hurt him, to let him heal and help him grow up into a wonderful man.

It was about a minute to midnight.   
“You know, in the muggles have a tradition, that shortly before midnight until shortly after midnight, you should do something you really want to do. So that the old year can end like the New Year begins: Fantastically.” Harry bit his lips and looked Draco in the eye who didn’t really know where he was going with that.  
They counted down together.  
When they reached “2”, Harry put his hand on Draco’s neck and pulled him into a passionate kiss. There were fireworks, both outside the window and in Draco’s heart. He had not expected that. Time seemed to stand still. Draco could taste Harry’s lips, feel his tongue with his tongue, hear his breath. He dug his hand deeper into the dark, messy hair and never wanted this moment to end.   
When they finally parted, they were out of breath and in awe of their affection for each other.  
“I said I’d do something I really wanted to do!” Harry beamed with joy.   
“Yeah, but, wow.” was all that Draco could manage that resembled an answer.  
“Hey, don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it!” Harry teased and put his forehead on Draco’s while closing his eyes.  
Draco decided to be as bold as his date and, without wasting too much time on thinking, closed the small gaps between their mouths again. This time, he was not too taken by surprise to relish every moment of their kiss. He took note of how Harry’s mouth moved, shyly at first, then bold and insatiably. He closely paid attention to how their tongues danced with each other. He listened to Harry’s heartbeat and felt his breath. It was truly magical.

They never wanted that night to end, but at around three in the morning they decided to sneak back into their dorms. They couldn’t risk falling asleep here and getting caught not being in their beds in the morning.  
“I already miss you. See you tomorrow? Or, well I mean today, in the afternoon sometimes?” Draco asked.   
“I’d love to, but the classes are about to start again, and I still haven’t figured out what’s the deal with this egg. I enjoy spending time with you so much, but I need to get ahead with that. So, I think it would be good if I focussed on that. We can still meet, but unfortunately not every day.” Harry’s words hurt Draco’s poor little heart. But he understood.  
“Draco, I’m sorry.”   
“There’s no need. I get it. Just don’t forget about me.”  
Still, their goodbye kiss left a bitter taste in Draco’s mouth. However, he already knew how he would solve this problem. He would, whatever the cost, get Cedric Diggory to tell him what the last task was.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In order to be able to spend more time with him, Draco helps Harry figure out the egg riddle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a head's up - this chapter is a tiny bit NSFW at the end. But we both know that's what you're here for, aren't you?

How was this lad literally always surrounded by a bunch of moronic girls? Draco had been low key stalking Cedric for hours, but he just couldn’t catch him alone. This swarm of giggling airheads was following his every step. Did he never even have to pee?   
They were on the patio, sitting under a tree and seemingly having the time of their lives. Draco would surely end that soon. “Aranea!” he whispered and pointed his wand at the tree. A bunch of small spiders rained out of it. Maybe reading the weird books at Borgin and Burkes while he waited for his father to finish up his shady business with the shopkeeper did have some use after all.  
Screeching like the sky fell from the sky, the girls stormed away from the tree and into the castle. Cedric took their panic with an almost relieved ease, he had wished for some peace and quiet for some time.  
Draco went over to him. “Diggory! How are you?”  
That nerd just smiled at him as if they had been friends for years. “Good, and you?” Arrogant bastard.  
“Alright, thanks. So what’s with the fanclub?” Draco thought it would be better not to immediately ask him about the egg. Better casually socialise first.  
“Oh, nothing, they just really seem to be into that whole Hogwarts Champion thing, I guess.”  
Interesting, if that were true, Harry would have the same following. He didn’t, right? Draco would have noticed that. Nevertheless, a little jealousy nipped at his stomach. “Ah, of course. I guess you’re doing a pretty good job at it?”   
Cedric laughed in that ‘I know I’m better than everybody else but I’m gonna pretend I don’t’-way. “Oh, well, I just try my best”  
“Don’t humble yourself, haven’t you already figured out everything about the next task?”   
Cedric did not appreciate that. All flustered, he responded: “I mean, I’m working on it, the egg thing, but, it’s still a far way, and also, I’m not even allowed to talk about it!”  
“So you couldn’t possibly tell me anything about that? Come on Ced, we both know you figured it out, you smart boy!”  
Cedric’s face turned bright red. “Yes, but, I mean no, I am NOT allowed to talk about that! Good day Malfoy.” He attempted to leave but Draco grabbed his arm.  
“Tell me Ced. Please. I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”  
“No, I can’t. I can’t just break the rules because you asked nicely.”  
“Okay, then I’ll ask not so nicely. Your dad has a nice job at the Ministry, right? Would be a shame if my father were to hear about a certain disagreement I had with Amos Diggory’s son. The minister is very fond of my father’s opinion on his staff.” Draco had almost forgotten how much he enjoyed blackmailing people and just being a dick in general, even though an unfamiliar voice in his mind reminded him about how morally wrong this was.  
“What? Are you threatening me? Just leave me alone.”  
“I’m not fucking around, Diggory. Tell me, or your father can kiss his monthly income goodbye.”  
Draco could see how Cedric internally debated whether to give up his high moral standards or let his father face unemployment. Finally, he reached a conclusion. “Okay, but you’re a dirty rat and you know it. Tell Krum or whoever you’re harassing people for to take a bath at the Prefects’ Bathroom on the fifth floor and calm his tits for a moment, then he’ll figure it out. The password is ‘pine fresh’. Just never ever talk to me again.” Then he stormed off. Draco hadn’t really gotten what he asked for, but he decided to let him get away with that. He didn’t want him to break down in tears.  
What he meant with the bath-thing, Draco didn’t know. Harry and he would have to figure that out.

“I’m telling you Harry, Diggory told me, he wouldn’t tell me nonsense to my face!”  
Harry wasn’t convinced. “Take a bath? What’s that even supposed to mean? And why at the Prefects’ Bathroom? How in the name of Merlin’s lingerie am I even supposed to get there?”  
“He didn’t tell me more, but how about we just go there together tonight and maybe see what we can find out.” Most of all, Draco was excited about taking a bath with Harry. He hoped that wouldn’t be too obvious.  
“Huh, I guess it wouldn’t hurt. Pick you up with the cloak at ten?”   
“Sure.” He gave him a quick peck at the cheek. “Have fun in Potions!”  
“Pff, I sure will. Take care.” Harry squeezed his hand for a second before they had to part. They would see each other soon enough, but neither one of them could concentrate on their classes for the rest of the day.

Draco waited next to the entrance. Harry was late. That wasn’t usually his style. Suddenly, he heard light steps but no person was to be seen. That must be him. “Harry”, he whispered. “Where are you?”   
Harry took off his cloak and greeted Draco with a gentle kiss on the hand. “At your service. Sorry I was late, I had to explain snail racing to Ron.”  
“No worries, good to see you. And snail- what?”   
“Racing. It’s a thing muggles do for fun.”  
These random facts about muggles never failed to amaze Draco. No wonder Muggle Studies was an actual class at Hogwarts.  
“Anyways”, Harry interrupted his train of thought. “Let’s go and drown this thing”  
Underneath the cloak, they snuck up to the fifth floor of the Hospital Tower. With a shaky hand, Harry opened the door.  
“Wow.” That was all he could say, and Draco didn’t react much more eloquently.  
This was the fanciest, most decadent bathroom he had ever seen, and he had lived at a big mansion all his life. A giant chandelier, marble everywhere, A swimming pool wit way too many taps than would be useful and a diving board. Given that did Hogwarts not require students to pay tuition fees, Draco was confused about who paid for this excess, not to mention its maintenance. Probably the hard-working tax payers, it was always them.  
“How does this thing even work?”, Harry asked.  
“I reckon you have to turn on the tap.” Draco responded dryly.  
“Yeah but which one? For all we know, one of them could be gasoline, or acid, or sweet soy sauce. God, I hat sweet soy sauce.”  
Draco started to randomly turning on one of the taps. A pink, bubble-gum-smelling mixture poured out. “Ugh I guess I found something even worse”, he said and quickly tried to wash it away with milky green mint liquid.   
“Who would want to bathe in that stuff? Doesn’t this just have normal water?” Harry had found a thick brown hot chocolate-fountain.  
“And who even designed this place? What did they have in mind? A freaking magic toxic waste dump experiment thing to see whether it could dissolve people?”  
“Wouldn’t be the first time that happened at Hogwarts.”  
After a bit of experimenting, they created an acceptable bubble bath smelling of jasmine, cinnamon, sandalwood, lavender, ylang ylang, and rose. A sensual, almost overwhelming scent was in the air.  
Harry started taking off his clothes, revealing tight red swimming shorts underneath. Draco just stared at him.  
“You brought bathing gear to Hogwarts?”, Draco asked aghast.  
“Of course, didn’t you?”  
“I never considered it a necessity.” Draco’s face was read as a tomato.   
“Okay, well if you don’t have one, I won’t wear mine either I guess”, Harry said and got rid of his last layer.  
Draco’s heart felt as if it was about to jump out of his chest. Awkwardly, he began to undress as well.  
He felt naked, of course he was naked, but being naked in a room with Harry was a feeling of vulnerability that he had not known before.  
Harry, not wanting to embarrass the red-faced boy any more, didn’t pay him much attention. He already splashed around in the water. “Draco, what are you waiting for? Get in the pool, it’s gorgeous!”  
He jumped into the water from the diving pool. It caused a huge splash. “Yeah you were right, this is amazing, I’ve never been in a swimming pool this nice before!”  
“I’ve never been in a swimming pool at all.”   
They played around for a bit, trying to push each other’s heads underwater and competitively holding their breath.   
“So, this is nice and everything, but what is this supposed to do about the egg?”, Harry asked.  
“I have no idea. Open it or something.”  
“No, please, whenever I open it, it starts screeching like crazy”   
“Let me try”, Draco demanded and snatched it from Harry’s hands. Upon opening it, Draco heard the most horrific sound his ears had ever been tortured with, and he grew up with his mother singing in the shower. Freaked out by the racket, he dropped it into the water.  
“Oh shit sorry, I’ll get it for you, hang on a second.” He dived down with open eyes trying to locate the egg on the ground. The screeching had stopped, no, not just that, now Draco could hear actual eerie voices. 

while you're searching ponder this;  
We've taken what you'll sorely miss

Since he was out of breath, he had to come back up for air. “Harry, get your head under water”, he gasped. “That was the trick all along, you have to listen to it underwater.”  
They both dived down together and listened to the whole sing-song.

Come seek us where our voices sound,  
We cannot sing above the ground,  
And while you're searching ponder this;  
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,  
An hour long you'll have to look,  
And to recover what we took,  
But past an hour, the prospect's black,  
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back

“Well I could have damn right guessed that. Another bloody riddle!” Harry punched the water in frustration.  
“Hey, come on, that’s really not that hard, dear”, Draco tried to calm him down. “It’s just a guess, but maybe the task has to do with the merepeople”  
“Merepeople?” Harry sighed. “Don’t tell me those exist as well.”  
“Of course they do, we have an underwater-window in the dungeons from which you can see them sometimes. Not a very social bunch though.”  
“So merepeople will steal something from me and I have an hour to get it back? Like, underwater? How am I supposed to hold my breath that long?”  
“Hmm, I guess we’ll have to think about that. But hey, we solved the first part of the riddle, it can’t be that hard to find a spell for that. I’m sure your friend Hermione can help you with that.”  
“I hope so. Anyways, thanks for dropping that cursed thing, without you I would have never figured that out.” Harry smiled at him and swam closer. “But we still have lots of time here, what’d you say, shall we make the best of it?” Teasingly, he brushed his hand over Draco’s face.  
“Harry…”, Draco started but then he left his second thoughts behind himself. Almost aggressively, he hugged Harry and pulled his warm body as close to his own as possible.   
They just stood in the water, their arms around each other, for a few minutes. They felt each other’s heartbeat, they smelled each other’s scent mixed with the water’s perfume.   
Draco’s head rested on Harry’s shoulder. “Do you know for how long I’ve wanted to do this?”, he asked softly.  
Harry pulled away a little and smiled at him. “Do you know for how long I’ve wanted to do this?”, he quoted him and pressed his lips on Draco’s. This wasn’t the wild, hungry kiss from New Year ’s Eve, this was soft, careful and slow. At first at least. They got more and more passionate, the intensity of their kiss increased with them realising how in love they were.   
When they finally broke away, out of breath yet unwillingly, they stared into each other’s eyes and didn’t know what to say.  
“You are beautiful” Harry broke the silence. Before Draco could reply, he had already pulled his face to his and started kissing him again.  
Harry’s lips gently found their way down to Draco’s neck. He let out a pleasurable moan. But Harry wasn’t satisfied with only kissing his upper body. The cheeky boy took a deep breath and dived down. Draco hadn’t expected things to go this far so he couldn’t help himself but to grab Harry’s head and scream in hot passion. It was the first time anyone had touched him like this. He finished before Harry had to come back up for air.  
They gasped for air in sync. Draco was shaking a little from being overwhelmed, but kissed Harry back when he felt his lips on his own. The taste of the aromatic bath water and, well, something else aroused him again. However, now it was his turn to please Harry. His hands wandered down his body until they found what they were looking for. If he wanted to use his mouth, he’d have to hurry. Following Harry’s example, he took a deep breath and submerged himself in the water. The feeling of not being able to breathe, the sound of the Golden Egg still underwater, being so close to Harry – all that turned him on so much that he came again, at the same time as Harry did.  
When he came back up, Harry still had his eyes closed and breathed heavily. “Draco”, he moaned “That was amazing”  
They were both exhausted and laid down on one of the thick, soft towels next to each other.   
Draco traced the edges of Harry’s face. It was astonishing how beautiful he was.  
“Harry, you are very dear to me” he said and put his hand on his heart.  
Harry took his hand and kissed it. “I know”, he whispered.  
They kissed again. This was the most wonderful night of Draco’s life.  
Before they were ready to get up, dawn came and they had to hurry back to their dorms.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco thinks of a creative solution to Harry's breathing problem.

“Did someone not get enough sleep last night?” Professor McGonagall asked while Draco was trying not to doze off.  
“Mr Malfoy, did you not hear my question?” She looked at him like a furious cat ready to jump at his throat.  
“Wh- I apologize, Professor, could you pleased repeat yourself?” he said, low-key fearing for his life.  
“I asked”, she seemed to stare right into his soul. “What kind of spells you use to transfigure an inanimate object into living creatures.  
“Uhhm” he had absolutely no clue.  
“With aspiratory spells, like I just said. Ten points from Slytherin.”   
His classmates stared at him. Draco didn’t care. A few hours ago, he had spent the best night of his life with Harry Potter, whom he would see again very soon.  
The professor lectured on about whatever she was talking about. Draco didn’t actually hear one word. Finally, the bell rang.  
Draco hurried out of the classroom. Just before the entry to the Great Hall, he ran into Harry, who was with Granger and Weasley.   
“Potter”, he spat.   
“Malfoy”, Harry replied in a disgusted manner. They still were too afraid of the repercussions to show any affection in public. Luckily, almost no one had seen their dance together at the Yule Ball, and despite his fellow Slytherins wondering where he was disappearing to all the time, they didn’t suspect anything as scandalous as the truth.   
A part of Draco wished Harry would just acknowledge their budding relationship in public. All this secrecy was no way to live!   
But for now, he was happy to be able to spend even a little time with him. He knew that neither Harry’s friends nor the Slytherins would understand, and he was glad not to have to deal with the inevitable teasing.   
Draco scarfed down his lunch. He wanted to have as much time as possible in the library researching ways to breath underwater. After all, he had promised Harry he would help him.  
Harry, Granger and Weasley were already at the library when Draco got there. Harry’s green eyes briefly met his as he entered, but the dark-haired boy didn’t acknowledge him. Draco knew it was for the best of both of them, but it still stung a little.   
Draco buried himself in books. It was difficult concentrating on reading knowing that Harry Potter was just behind that bookshelf. He tried his best to ignore the trio’s murmurs. Before he even got properly into his research, it was time to go to class. Over the next weeks, that was how they mostly spent their time together. They still occasionally went on little dates in that magic room, but not as often as Draco would have liked to.   
Harry grew more and more frustrated by the day. Draco was sure he’d tried his best not let it out on him, but occasionally, he was a bit too harsh. Draco didn’t take offence to that, though, since he could only guess how difficult this situation was for Harry. Soon, January was over, and the second task approached inevitably. The boys still weren’t any closer to finding a way to spend an hour under water.

“I’m giving up. Maybe it’d be for the best if I just drowned, who would even care?” Harry angrily punched the pink wall of their secret room. It was the 22nd of February, two days before the second task, and they still hadn’t been successful.   
“Harry… Don’t say that!”, Draco pleaded. “I’d be heartbroken!”   
“I just… I don’t want to do this anymore. Why is it always me? I didn’t ask for this! Just because some dusty cup decided to spit out my bloody name, I have to become a freaking goldfish?” It was visible that Harry had reached his breaking point.   
“We’ll find a way, Harry, I promise” Draco took Harry’s hand. “Don’t give up! You’ll do amazing in the task!”  
Harry attempted to smile, but it looked more like a grimace. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t bother you with all this. You have your own problems.” His green eyes looked watery, like he would start to cry any moment.   
Draco pulled him into a tight hug. “It’s okay. I believe in you. It will be okay. I promise” He could feel the tension leaving Harry’s body. The other boy started to sob into Draco’s shoulder, trying to be as quiet as possible.   
Draco comforted Harry with his hands “Shh.. It’s okay. It will be fine”, he whispered repeatedly into Harry’s ear.  
They stood there like that, in a tight hug, Harry crying, for many minutes until Harry pulled away from Draco and sat down on the sofa. Draco hesitated for a moment, then sat down next to him. They sat there quietly for close to half an hour.   
“I think I’ll go to sleep”, Harry broke the silence. His eyes were still a little red and swollen, but it wasn’t as noticeable as before.   
“Okay, no problem!”, Draco replied and got up. They walked to the door and said goodbye with a soft, intimate kiss.   
The whole way back to the common room, Draco pondered about their breathing problem. The answer had to be in some book somewhere. They had already worked their way halfway through the library, but without success. If only there was a way to make that one book with the answer appear out of nowhere. Wait! Draco stopped dead in his tracks. He’d just had a brilliant idea.

Draco could not concentrate on brewing his Pepperup Potion. Instead, he scribbled down a note for Harry. 

H., meet me at the usual place during lunch. I’ve had an idea!  
\- D.

He pretended to get some ingredients from the student’s store-cupboard, and while walking past Harry, he slipped the note into his pocket. Hopefully he’d notice it.   
The rest of Potions class felt like hours. He could hardly believe it when the bell finally rang and he could head to lunch.   
He practically inhaled his food and then hurried up to the seventh floor. Harry was already waiting for him.   
“So, what’s this idea you’ve had?”, he asked sceptically.   
“Just wait. I hope this will work…”, Draco replied.   
He took a deep breath, and started to walk along the corridor. I need to figure out a way to breathe under water. I need to figure out a way to stay under water for an hour and survive. I need to figure out a way to breathe under water. He thought repeatedly. And sure enough, a door appeared.   
“Okay, let’s see if it worked”, he mumbled and opened the door carefully.   
The room looked completely different from the other times he had been there. It was completely empty, except for a lectern with a book on it. Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties by Hadrian Whittle.   
“Hey, Neville has this book as well! I think he got it from Professor Moody!”, Harry exclaimed.   
“There must be something good in there”, Draco insisted as he opened the book’s directory. Something called Gillyweed caught his eye as a red circle was drawn around the word. He opened the book at the corresponding page.   
“Wow, Harry, look at this! This is it!” Draco couldn’t believe his eyes. “It says here that Gillyweed is a magical plant that, when eaten, allows a human to breathe underwater. When Gillyweed is eaten by a human, it gives them fish-like attributes, including gills to process oxygen from water, webbing between the fingers and toes for easier swimming, removing the need for blinking, and adapting to cold temperatures in water. While under the effects of Gillyweed, one cannot breathe air with their lungs. There is some debate among Herbologists as to the duration of the effects of Gillyweed in fresh water versus salt water, but in fresh water, a sprig of Gillyweed lasts for well over an hour.” Draco looked at Harry triumphantly.   
“Oh my God. Now we just have to find some!” Harry’s green eyes were illuminated by that fire Draco had missed so dearly over the last few weeks.   
“I’m sure Professor Snape has some in his private cupboard” Draco pondered.   
“You can’t possibly consider stealing it from him! That’d be crazy!”  
“I’m sure we’ll figure out a way to get to his stash. Let’s just meet outside the magic room after class. We’ll have thought of something by then.”

The rest of Draco’s classes felt like a drag. He didn’t actually catch a word of whatever the Professors were talking about. When school was finally over for the day, and Draco really should be writing one of the two essays that were assigned the students, he quickly ran up to the seventh floor. Harry arrived seconds after him.   
“Okay, so I think we should simply walk in there and get the Gillyweed while everyone is at dinner”.   
Draco wasn’t so sure about that. Was this the best they could come up with? However, it was the night before the task and they had already run out of other options.   
“Let’s do it!” Draco attempted to sound confident.  
They snuck down to the dungeons, to Snape’s office. No one, not even a ghost, was in sight. This could actually work! The door to the office was locked, not with a muggle lock, but with some kind of spell. Probably the Locking Spell, Colloportus.   
Draco pointed his wand at the door. “Alohomora!”, he said, and the door opened. Carefully, they snuck inside. Now, they just needed to find the Gillyweed.   
“Wow!”, Draco was impressed by all the jars and vials. They didn’t look too appetizing, though. He could see something that looked like chicken feet floating in one jar, and big, green eyes in another. And these were by far not the most disgusting ones.   
“This room didn’t get much prettier since the last time I’ve been here”, Harry murmured.   
“You’ve been here before?”  
“Yeah, at the beginning of the second year, when I missed the train and flew a car to school with Ron”  
“Oh”  
“What does this Gillyweed-stuff look like again?” Harry asked.  
“Well, according to the book, it’s grey-green in colour, slimy, and resembles rat tails”  
“Great! That narrows it down. Why does Snape not have any labels on these jars?”  
They searched for close to fifteen minutes, but nothing they found resembled the description.   
“We should really hurry up” Harry said. “Dinner’s almost over”   
“I know, but it has to be here somewhere” Then, finally, something caught Draco’s eye. A jar on the very top shelf, filled with vile looking, slimy, grey-green rat tails. It matched the description perfectly!   
“Harry, look, I think I found it!” Draco stretched to reach the top shelf. Luckily, he was fairly tall and could reach it. “This must be it!”  
“Are you sure about this? After all, I’ll have to eat this, I don’t fancy poisoning myself”  
“Did you see anything else that matches the description?”  
“Okay”, Harry sighed. “I’ll just have to hope it’s actually Gillyweed”  
“Let’s go, Snape could be here any minute” Harry grabbed one rat tail out of the jar and they quickly snuck out of the office again. They didn’t get far, though.   
“Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, what are you doing in there?”, Professor Moody did not seem pleased to catch them exiting a colleague’s office. Harry quickly slipped the Gillyweed into his pocket.   
“Uhm, detention”, was the best Draco could come up with. Moody didn’t really seem to believe them.  
“I wonder why Professor Snape put you in detention, alone, in his office, while he is at dinner.”  
“He knows Malfoy would never do anything stupid!” Harry replied.   
“Is that so?” Moody’s freaky eye focussed on Draco’s face. “I hope he was right to trust you, then. Good luck with your second task tomorrow, Mr. Potter” And with that, Moody limped away. Finally, Draco could breathe again.   
“You better get some sleep now, Harry, you’ll have a hard day tomorrow.”  
“Right”. Harry gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “Thank you for your help, Draco. See you tomorrow”   
Draco could still feel Harry’s lips burn on his cheek way after they had parted.   
As soon as he entered the Slytherin Common Room, Pansy Parkinson jumped up.  
“There you are! I was looking for you everywhere? Why weren’t you at dinner?”  
“Had stuff to do”, Draco replied, blushing. He could only hope that his fellow Slytherins would never find out that he’d helped Harry Potter with the second task.   
“Right, ‘stuff’. The same stuff you always have to do when you disappear?”, Pansy asked in an accusatory manner.   
“Why were you even looking for me?”, Draco attempted to change the topic.   
Pansy sighed. “Snape is looking for you. You’re supposed to come to his office right away.”  
“Why?”, Draco asked. His heart sank to his boots. Moody must have told Snape that he caught them. Draco was in big trouble.  
“I don’t know, he didn’t tell me. He just told me to tell you.”  
“Okay, I better go then.” Low-key fearing for his life, Draco left the common room.

When Draco arrived at Snape’s office for the second time this day, the professor was already waiting for him.   
“Take a seat Mr. Malfoy.” He gestured to a musty wooden chair. Draco followed the invitation.   
“I have heard you are getting along with Mr. Potter better recently. How… delightful.” Draco blushed. How did Snape know of this?   
“Well, you know, Sir, I guess we just grew out of the childish squabbles.”  
“Mr Potter seems to have taken a liking to you. At least Professor Dumbledore seems to think so” Draco’s guts were in a knot. Where was he going with this?  
“Potter? Liking me? Ridiculous!”, Draco attempted to cover his nervousness.   
“In fact, Mr Potter seems to like you so much, that Dumbledore has chosen you as his… treasure.”  
“His treasure? You don’t mean…”  
“Yes, Mr Malfoy. You will be who Mr Potter will have to rescue from the lake.” Draco’s brain could not compute what Snape had just said. Did Harry really like him that much? Thinking about that made his heart skip a beat. But he couldn’t actually let himself be rescued by Harry in front of the whole school. Everyone would know!   
“Uhm, I don’t think I want to do that, but thank you for the offer, Sir,” Draco said awkwardly.   
“Mr. Malfoy, I’m afraid I must insist. Professor Dumbledore seems to think that you are the best candidate. It will be perfectly safe. No need to worry. You will just sleep for a while.” Draco really didn’t want to do this, but he felt like it was no use arguing with Snape, so he just said nothing.   
“Now please, Mr. Malfoy, go down to the Hospital wing, where you will meet the others.”  
Without thinking too much about it, Draco got up and walked up to the first floor. Madam Pomfrey was already hurrying around the room.   
“Child endangerment is what I call this! There is absolutely no reason to use students for this. Why not just let them bring up some jewellery?” She kept on rambling for several more minutes.  
“Ah, Mr Malfoy, welcome, and thank you for your participation!”, Dumbledore greeted him. Draco looked around the room. The others were Granger, Cho Chang, and a little, eerily beautiful girl who looked a lot like Fleur Delacour.   
“Now please”, Dumbledore said. “If you would please lay down on the beds. Do not worry, it will just feel like falling asleep”   
Draco did as he was ordered and laid down. He tried to breathe calmly and not think of the repercussions of what he was about to do. Then Dumbledore said a spell, and everything became dark.

After what felt only like seconds later, Draco was cold, wet, and swimming in the Great Lake. Harry was next to him, visibly gasping for air.   
“You did it, Harry, I knew you would! Wait, why’d you bring her up, too?” Draco had only just noticed the little girl who was trying to stay above the water.  
“Fleur didn’t turn up, I couldn’t leave her,”, Harry panted.   
“Awe, Harry, seriously? Did you actually think Dumbledore would let us drown?”   
“But the song-“  
“The song was only to ensure you’d take the task seriously and get back in time! You weren’t supposed to play the hero!”   
It was visible that Harry felt stupid and embarrassed.  
“C’mon,” Harry said shortly, “help me with her, I don’t think she can swim very well.”   
Draco couldn’t help but giggle as they pulled Fleur’s sister toward the bank. Maybe Harry had behaved a little stupid, but that was just what he loved about him. His brave hero, his saviour…  
Fleur pulled the girl out of the water. “Gabrielle, ma chérie!” Then she turned to Harry, who struggled on land. “You saved ’er,” she said breathlessly. “Even though she was not your ’ostage.”   
“Yeah” said Harry. Draco could see he was regretting not leaving the girl in the lake. Fleur bent down, kissed Harry twice on each cheek. Harry’s head turned scarlet, and Draco could feel jealousy burn in his chest. Before Fleur could say anything else, he took Harry’s hand and pulled him towards Madam Pomfrey.   
“Come, let’s get you a blanket and some Pepperup Potion, you look like you could use it.”

In the end, Harry had gotten forty-five points and was tied for first place with Cedric. Draco was very happy for his saviour. They had decided not to celebrate that night, because Harry was exhausted. Tomorrow night, though, they would meet in their secret room.  
Draco dreaded entering the Slytherin common room. What would his house mates say to him being Harry Potter’s hostage, the person Harry Potter cared for the most in all of Hogwarts? He took a deep breath and said the password. As soon as he set foot into the common room, he saw them. The banners of him and Harry surrounded by hearts. On some of them they even kissed. Draco’s head burned.   
“Look who’s back, it’s Loverboy!”, Pansy Parkinson shrieked.   
“Aww, is it hard for you to be so far away from your boyfriend?” Blaise Zabini stretched the last word mockingly.  
“Shut up. Yeah maybe I like him, what’s the big deal? At least he likes me back, not like that Ravenclaw girl you have the hots for, Zabini. And he’s not my boyfriend.” Not yet at least. Maybe Draco should seek to change that.   
The other Slytherins were continuing to throw mockery at him, but Draco just ignored them and went to sleep. After all, he had tomorrow night to look forward to. A little bit of teasing was nothing compared to a night with Harry.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lovers celebrate Harry's success at the second task.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah so this chapter is quite NSFW and a bit kinky. Enjoy!

“You know, I’ve been thinking…” Draco did not know how to finish this sentence. They were sitting in a dark red loveseat holding hands while watching a comforting fire in a brick fireplace. That room could really make anything happen.   
“Yes?”, Harry asked.  
“You know, about us… and stuff” Draco shrugged. Why did the words he wanted to say not come out?  
“What about us?” Harry raised an eyebrow. God, his emerald eyes let Draco’s heart skip a beat.  
“It’s just, like, you like me, I like you, it’s pretty neat” Draco could feel his face burning. He must be scarlet red.  
“Uhm… yeah… crazy how things work out sometimes” Harry was entirely clueless. He had no idea where Draco was going with this.  
“And now, since the whole school knows anyways, you know, why not...” The words seem to be stuck somewhere in his throat.  
“Are you trying to ask me to be your boyfriend officially?”, Harry asked.  
“Yes!! Will you?” Draco felt his heart almost jump out of his chest.  
“Hmm, let me think about it”  
“Oh… well, of course, no problem, I know it’s probably not an easy decision, you’re a Triwizard Champion after all, take your time”, Draco rambled.  
“Of course I will, you idiot, I love you after all!” Harry laughed out loud and planted a kiss on Draco’s cheek.  
“Really??” Draco beamed. “So, it’s official?” He could hardly contain his excitement.  
“Yes. We are officially boyfriends.” Harry stated factually.  
“Wow, I don’t know what to say…” Draco blushed again.   
“How about”, Harry said seductively. “You don’t say anything. There’s a better use for that pretty mouth of yours. Harry leaned forward and kissed Draco deeply. For a moment, Draco was too overwhelmed by the moment to kiss back, but then he responded eagerly. Their lips danced a sensual ballet, their tongues were entwined like lovers. Draco could feel Harry’s hands exploring his longing body. At first, Harry had cupped his face, but soon his hands travelled downwards. Slowly, he brushed over Draco’s chest underneath his shirt, leaving a burning sensation where he touched him. Then he went down further, and stopped a bit under his belly button. Oh, how Draco wanted him to just go down a few more inches… He felt like he had never wanted anything more in his life.   
“Please”, he whispered breathlessly between kisses “Please, just a little more”   
“Oh, you want it?”   
“Yes, please, I need it…”  
Harry slowly unbuttoned Draco’s pants. Then he ever so slightly brushed over his briefs with the back of his hand. A wave of desire washed over Draco at the delicate touch. But Harry’s hand didn’t touch him where he wanted it, instead, it travelled to Draco’s back.   
“No, please” How could Harry tease him so mercilessly?   
“Aww, you’re so desperate, it’s adorable.” Nevertheless, Harry’s hand slowly moved to Draco’s stomach again. Barely making contact with Draco’s skin, it sunk down. But it didn’t go down the middle, where Draco needed Harry to touch him, it travelled to his inner thigh. The touch almost drove him insane.   
“Take off those pants”, Harry whispered in his ear. Draco immediately jumped up to comply. The few seconds he needed to wrestle out of his pants felt like an eternity. He took his shirt off as well, for good measure.   
“Better take those off as well”, Harry said with a wicked smile pointing to Draco’s briefs. “I want to see you fully naked”.   
After Draco had hurried to take off his briefs, he felt Harry’s hands on his chest again. This time, they felt much sharper. Harry’s fingernails dug into Draco’s chest, leaving red marks where he had touched him. The pain felt heavenly. He only wanted more.   
“You like that?” Harry asked, and Draco only managed to wordlessly nod in response. Draco felt Harry drag his fingernails down his back and towards his butt. Then he felt a sharp pain as Harry slapped his but hard. He let out a groan. How could pain feel so good? More pain, more glimpses of heaven. If only Harry slapped him even harder, if only he had a whip. Suddenly, a black leather bullwhip materialized out of thin air right next to them. Ah right, the magic room…   
“Oh, you want me to use that?” Harry grabbed the whip and brushed over Draco’s backside with it. The leather was cold. Then he cracked it and Draco felt a beautiful pain like never before. Now the whip didn’t feel cold at all, no, it burned.   
“More… harder…”, he whimpered. The whip cracked again. And again. Briefly, Draco thought about how his butt must be scarlet red by now, but another crack of the whip snapped him out of that train of thought.   
“Hmm, I think you deserve a little pleasure after all that pain” Harry said after whipping Draco several more times. He heard a “clunk” as Harry dropped the whip on the floor. “We don’t want to destroy your sweet little butt” Draco only thought that the pain had been very pleasurable, but then Harry’s hand stroking over his raw, burning behind distracted him again.   
Then, ever so slowly, the hand travelled to his front. Down his right thigh, and up to his belly again, then down his other thigh. The centre of Draco’s pleasure burned with passion. If only Harry would give him what he had desired for so long. He was completely at his boyfriend’s mercy. Oh god, they were actually boyfriends.   
Finally, Harry’s hand brushed over Draco’s junk. Draco felt another wave of pleasure wash over him, even though Harry had barely touched him. Harry now took Draco’s penis that had been erect since they started kissing into his hand and tenderly massaged it. It was all Draco had longed for. He felt every tiny movement of Harry’s hand. The up and down strokes drove him absolutely mad. He could no longer contain himself and let out a loud moan. Then a louder one. Another one, even louder. Until he orgasmed with a scream. The world was spinning around Draco, he felt like he was feeling every emotion all at once. Slowly, the whirlwind lifted from him, and a soothing satisfaction set in.   
“Thank you, Harry, thank you, that was everything.”, he whimpered. He leaned back in the loveseat to catch his breath.   
“You’re welcome, my love” Harry smiled at Draco.   
“Now it’s your turn to get spoiled”, Draco said and reached for Harry’s pants button.   
“How about we try something else?”, Harry asked with a twinkle in his eyes. Suddenly, he was holding a bottle of lube that wasn’t in the room one second ago. The ginormous canopy bed behind them wasn’t either.   
“Get on the bed, my love”, Harry chirped. Draco complied. He knew what would happen now, and he felt excited. He couldn’t wait to feel Harry inside of him. He arched his back to stick his butt up as high as possible. Then he felt something. It wasn’t painful at all, it was just something small. Then it was out again. Then something slightly bigger entered him, it entered him deeper than before. It made him feel something he’d never felt before.   
So that’s what prostate stimulation feels like, he thought.   
Out again. And then he felt a slight pain as something really big entered him. That must be it, finally. Harry thrust his pelvis against Draco again and again. Draco could hear Harry’s moans get louder and louder. He could hardly contain himself, so he bit into the pillow to keep himself from screaming.   
Then, with a loud groan, Harry stopped thrusting and collapsed onto the bed next to Draco. They laid there next to each other for a few minutes.   
“Come here”, Harry invited Draco finally and offered him his arm. They snuggled close together. Moments passed, or it could have been hours. They didn’t say anything, they just enjoyed each other’s skin on their skin.   
“Maybe we should get back into the dormitories”, Draco murmured, breaking the silence.  
“No, let’s stay here just a little longer…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this was a lot of fun. As a lesbian top, getting into the mind of a gay bottom was interesing. Draco in this chapter felt how I want my bottom to feel. God, I love merciless teasing. Also yes, Harry is the top in this relationship because I said so.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco wakes up, and suddenly, the world isn't the wonderful place it was two years ago anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, it wasn't all just a dream, Draco just dreamt of the very real past. It's all good.

1997, Draco’s sixth year

Draco woke up in a cold sweat. That had been a long, weird dream. He had been catapulted back to years ago in his sleep, back to when the world had been a wonderful place and he had been happy with his boyfriend Harry Potter. Ex-boyfriend. It still hurt to think about. How had he let it come to this?   
Now all that he had left of his former love was memories, painful, painful memories. They were two fundamentally different people from two fundamentally different backgrounds after all. Maybe it could have all worked out if it wasn’t for his family, and his family’s duty to the Dark Lord.   
After the Dark Lord had returned two years ago, everything between him and Harry had changed. Draco simply could not have continued being with him, it would have endangered his family. It was bad enough that his father knew about the relationship, but if the Dark Lord, whom his father served, had heard of it, he might have killed Draco and his whole family. He would have happily endangered his own life for Harry Potter, but he had to think of his parents. He had to put their safety before his passion.   
So he had decided to end things with Harry right after Dumbledore had announced the return of the Dark Lord. It hadn’t been an easy decision, but it had come quickly to him. It hadn’t felt like a choice anyway. Harry had been painfully understanding. The poor boy had just seen Cedric Diggory die, but he had been composed and level-headed. It had been Draco who had cried. He still felt tears in his eyes when thinking about the breakup.  
The beginning of the fifth year had been awkward, but they both survived. After a while, they both adjusted back into their old rivalry. Even if it had been oddly painful to bully Harry. But it was necessary, he couldn’t let the Dark Lord think he had any sort of affection for him. Even if he couldn’t rip that affection, that longing, that passion out of his heart. The heart wants what it wants.   
The next summer had come and gone, but his feelings for Harry still hadn’t died down. Even if things with the Dark Lord had gotten serious. He had even been made an official Death Eater. And he had been tasked with a very important assignment: To kill Albus Dumbledore. The Dark Lord himself had given him that task. Failure was not an option, even if that meant irreparably destroying his relationship with Harry. Then he had that thought, that horrible thought, yet again. He tried to push it away, but it still stung like a bee. Dumbledore was not the only one the Dark Lord wanted dead. The one he wanted dead more than anyone else was Harry himself.   
Draco couldn’t imagine a world without Harry. Even if there was no chance of that ever happening, he sometimes liked to daydream about running away with him to a little cottage in the woods where they could live in peace, away from the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord and everyone else. If Harry was dead, he wouldn’t even have that little bit of hope to hold onto. If Harry was dead, he would have nothing. A part of him would die as well. But it was inevitable, so he should better get used to it. He didn’t deserve a calm future with Harry anyways.   
Sighing, he got up and got dressed. It would be another dreary day of trying to fix that damned vanishing cabinet.  
The classes passed in a blur, and before he knew, he was in the magic room which he now knew was the Room of Requirement again. Every time he entered it, he was painfully reminded of his and Harry’s time there together. But that didn’t matter now, all that mattered was fixing the cabinet. He had tried for months. He had even given up and thought of other ways to kill Dumbledore, but none had worked. The necklace had cursed Katie Bell, and the mead had only poisoned Weasley. He was out of options. The cabinet was the only way.   
It was awfully quiet in the room. He pulled the cloth cover off the cabinet. Wait, was it actually quiet, or did he just hear something? No, there definitely was a noise. A chirping of sorts. It couldn’t be- or could it? Holding his breath, he opened the cabinet. With a flapping noise, a bird flew out. This was it! The bird had come from the other cabinet at Borgin and Burkes, there was no other way. That means he had done it. The cabinet was working. He caught the bird with a magic spell, locked it into the cabinet, and sent the bird into the other cabinet. When he opened the door, it was gone. A few moments later, it flew out of the cabinet again. Draco couldn’t believe it. He had finally done it. Now there was nothing stopping him from finally executing his plan. He would invite the Death Eaters into Hogwarts and then kill Dumbledore. He just needed to wait for the perfect moment.   
“Avada Kedavra” he said and pointed at the bird. A flash of green light hit the bird, and it fell out of the air, dead.  
With a smirk, Draco covered the cabinet with the cloth again and left the Room of Requirement to write a letter to his father.

Tonight was the night. It had finally come. The night Dumbledore would die. Draco was shaking a little, but he was composed. He would not mess this up. Taking a deep breath, he entered the magic room and pulled the cloth cover off the cabinet for the last time. He took a step back, and then he heard a knocking on the inside of the vanishing cabinet. They had arrived. He opened the door and out came several of his dark acquaintances. His father Lucius was first, then came Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Corban Yaxley, Gibbon, Thorfinn Rowle, Selwyn, Travers and finally Fenrir Greyback. Together, they left the Room of Requirement to meet up with Professor Snape.   
The following battle was a blur, Draco only remembered throwing curses around and then ending up at the Astronomy Tower, staring into Dumbledore’s eyes.   
He had already disarmed the old man, so what was stopping him from finally doing the deed he had worked for this whole year?  
“Good evening, Draco”, Dumbledore said. How was he so calm? Draco looked around to ensure that he and Dumbledore were alone. It seemed like it, but there was a second broom on the floor next to Dumbledore.   
“Who else is here?” Draco already knew the answer. There was only one person who would be out with Dumbledore and could turn flawlessly invisible.   
“A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?”   
Draco looked back at Dumbledore.  
“It’s Potter, isn’t it, he’s under his cloak”  
“I can assure you that there is no one here to infringe on our privacy, Draco”. Draco could see Dumbledore lose the tiniest bit of composure, just for a moment, but that moment was answer enough for him. Harry was here. Harry would witness him killing Dumbledore. That couldn’t be. He could never do it with him watching. It was impossible.   
“You’re lying! Accio cloak”, he shouted and flung his wand through the air and the Cloak of Invisibility flew towards him, revealing a paralyzed Harry.   
“Finite Incantatem”, Draco whispered to undo the curse.  
“What the FUCK is wrong with you, Malfoy?”, Harry yelled as soon as Draco had uttered the words.   
“I’m sorry, I have to do this. Please, just get away. Hide, get to safety, but let me do this. I have no choice.”, Draco pleaded.  
“No choice? That’s bullshit, Draco, you don’t need to do this. You’re better than this. I know you are, or at least, I knew you once.” It wasn’t lost on Draco that Harry had used his first name once more. It had been a long time since he had heard him use it.   
“You don’t understand”, he cried. “He will kill them. My parents. He will kill them if I don’t kill him.”  
“Dumbledore can protect them, can’t you Professor?”   
“Harry, my boy, maybe it’s best if you do what Draco asked you to do and leave us here”, Dumbledore proposed. It was very clear that Harry did not like this answer.   
“I’m sorry Harry. Maybe you thought once that you knew me, but you didn’t. I never was a good person, you never managed to change me, I always had to put my family first. It’s why we had to break up in the first place. We are simply not compatible. I am a bad person, you are not, so get away from here before you get hurt.” Draco wasn’t sure if he believed his own words.  
“No. I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that none of that was real. I knew you once, maybe I don’t know you anymore, but our fourth year was real. Nothing has ever felt more real than what we had.”  
“Harry, please, don’t make this harder than it has to be”. Draco was close to crying. Harry was right, but he had to try to convince him that he wasn’t. He had to leave so that Draco could finally do the deed. But Harry didn’t even think to give up on him.  
“Don’t you remember what it felt like? What if felt to be together? Because I never forgot it. I remember everything, from that first time we had a little moment in Myrtle’s bathroom, to our Hogsmead date, to that night in the Prefects Bathroom to all the nights we spent in our secret magic room. I remember the dancing, the fireworks, the time I saved you from the Great Lake. Don’t you tell me that all meant nothing to you. Because to me, it meant everything.”  
“Fuck”, Draco yelled out. “Of course I remember. Hell, I wouldn’t ever want to forget. That was the best year of my life, and it all meant the world to me. But now it’s over and the world has changed. It can never be like that again.”  
“Who says it can never be like that again?” Harry took a step towards Draco. “Draco, I would give everything for it to be like it was. I’d personally kill you-know-who for you if that meant we could be together again.”  
Draco choked. Had he heard correctly? No, it couldn’t be.  
“It’s impossible. It’s impossible that you still like me, after everything that happened, after all I did. I wouldn’t deserve it”  
“I love you, Draco. I still do. I’ve always loved you, all this time we were apart I have thought about you, longed for you every day. I still love you, you beautiful idiot, now will you please put that wand down.”  
Draco slowly lowered his wand.  
“Y-you do? After all this time?”  
“Always”   
That word made Draco break down crying. Harry rushed towards him to comfort him, but not before handing Dumbledore the wand Draco had dropped.   
“It’s okay, it will all be fine, we’ll be fine, my love, we’ll be fine” Harry’s hug felt so good, he hadn’t felt his touch in such a long time.  
But their moment didn’t last for long. Suddenly, Draco heard loud footsteps, and then the door to the tower opened and four robed people poured onto the ramparts. The Death Eaters must have won the fight below.   
“What is happening here, Draco? What are you doing? Why haven’t you killed him yet?”, Amycus Carrow asked accusingly. Draco couldn’t control his sobs well enough to reply.  
“Good evening, Amycus,” said Dumbledore who had been watching everything that went down between Draco and Harry calmly, “And you’ve brought Alecto too. …Charming…”  
Alecto Carrow chuckled angrily. “Think your little jokes’ll help you on your deathbed then?” she said mockingly.  
“Jokes? No, no, these are manners,” replied Dumbledore.  
Fenrir Greyback grabbed Draco’s shoulder. “Pull yourself together and do it, boy.”  
Draco had regained enough composure to stop crying.   
“Yeah I don’t think he will do that” Harry said, raising his wand in one hand while grabbing Draco’s hand with the other.   
“Potter?”, Alecto spit. “Oh, it will be a pleasure to bring you to the Dark Lord personally. I can already imagine how he will reward me”   
“Leave him alone”, snapped Draco impulsively.   
“Are you quite alright Draco? Did he confund you?”, Alecto said with some real concern in her voice.  
“He wouldn’t know if he had been confunded now, would he?”, Amycus hissed.  
“If Draco won’t do it, I’m more than happy to assist”, rasped Greyback.  
“No,” said Yaxley sharply. “We’ve got orders. Draco’s got to do it. Now, Draco, and quickly.”  
“I said” Harry repeated himself threateningly “that he won’t do it”  
“It appears Draco has reconsidered his options and does not wish to kill me anymore” Dumbledore stated.   
“Nonsense!” shrieked Alecto. “Just kill him already! Do it or stand aside so one of us —” The door to the ramparts burst open once again and Professor Snape had arrived. He clutched his wand and examined the four Death Eaters standing around Draco and Harry and Dumbledore leaning against the wall.   
“We’ve got a problem, Snape,” said Amycus, her eyes fixating on Dumbledore, “the boy doesn’t seem able —”  
But Amycus’ wasn’t the voice that sent chills down Draco’s spine.  
“Severus…” It was a sound scarier than anything. Dumbledore, pleading. Draco couldn’t have imagined it.  
Without a word, Snape walked towards Dumbledore, pushing Draco and out of the way. The three Death Eaters and Fenrir Greyback took a few steps back.  
“Severus… please”   
While gazing at Dumbedore with a look that spoke of more pure hatred that words ever could, Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.   
“NOOO!!!”, Harry screamed and jumped in front of Dumbledore  
“Get out of the way, Potter”, Snape spit.   
“Fuck you. If you want to kill him, you have to kill me first, you traitorous coward”  
Draco swallowed, and stepped next to Harry. “And me”.  
Suddenly, the world looked strange. It was as if a shiny membrane surrounded Draco, Harry, Dumbledore and Snape. The membrane separated the four from the Death Eaters and Greyback.   
“It has to happen, Harry”, said Dumbledore in a defeated tone “Although I appreciate the gesture. Tell them, Severus. They can’t hear us”  
“I swore an unbreakable vow to your Mother that I would do the deed should you not be able to do it yourself” Snape explained to Draco.  
“So? I don’t care if you die”, Harry spat.  
“I do”, said Dumbledore firmly “And I will die soon anyways” He pointed to his blackened hand. “The curse is spreading. I doubt I have more than a week left”  
“But can’t we cure it? There must be a way, Professor!”  
“I assure you that Severus did the best he could. And now he needs to kill me. I promise you Harry, I have thought long and hard about this, and I’m not happy with this plan either, but it’s the best I could come up with, and given that I am extraordinarily clever, it must be a pretty good one.”  
Harry seemed to finally understand. Draco reached out for his hand.   
“Harry, maybe they are right…”, he muttered.  
“No. It can’t be, I don’t want to believe it”  
“Harry, my boy, the truth can be a horrifically painful thing, but it’s the truth nonetheless. In a few moments, I will dissolve this bubble that granted us the privilege of talking openly, and Severus will finally kill me.”  
Snape nodded.   
“Just one more thing, you two must not utter a word of all this to anyone, not even your friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry. They must believe Severus a traitor, it’s the only way to ensure Voldemort trusts him, and that is vital. You will understand everything soon, I know it’s a lot to ask, but you need to trust me on this. Take this” Dumbledore handed Harry a golden medallion. Then he touched Harry’s arm and looked at him for a long moment “I am sorry it has to be like this, you deserve better. But I fully believe in you, and that you will be able to fulfil the task that rests on your shoulders. Treasure the relationship that you have with Draco, love is such a rare thing these days. I am so incredibly proud of you, Harry. Goodbye.” And with these words, the bubble dissolved. Then everything happened very quickly.   
Snape threw his wand in the air and yelled “Avada Kedavra!”. A bolt of green light hit Dumbledore in the chest, he rose up in the air, hung up there for a brief moment and then fell down backwards over the battlements, disappearing out of sight.  
Draco’s ears rang with Harry’s scream of horror. Despite everything Dumbledore had told them, he had to restrain Harry from jumping at Snape’s throat, who quickly retreated down the tower, taking the Death Eaters and Greyback with him.   
“Shh, Harry, it will be okay, remember what he told us”, he whispered into his ear.   
Harry broke down crying in his arms.   
“You couldn’t have done anything to save him, he wanted it that way, it was planned from the start.” Draco tried to comfort Harry, but he was in too much pain to pay him much mind, so he decided to just hug him without saying anything.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco has made his choice, now he just needs to convince Harry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not really a whole chapter, more like a short, soft, little epilogue.

“You would risk your life. Your parents’ lives. You would risk everything!” Harry looked at Draco aghast.  
“If that means helping you defeat him, it’s worth it.” Draco said firmly.  
It was the night after Dumbledore’s funeral. They had met up afterwards, the first time they had seen each other since the battle of the astronomy tower. Since Dumbledore’s death. Draco had never cared that much for the whimsical, old professor, but he knew Harry had had a profound relationship with the man, so his heart cried on his behalf.  
“You don’t know what you’re saying. He will know you betrayed him. He will want revenge.”  
“No, I know that, and believe me, I’m scared for my life as much as anyone would be. But I’m scared for your life as well. Yours matters more to me than my life.”  
“Don’t say that, Draco…” Harry said softly, brushing his hand over Draco’s cheek.  
“It’s the truth. I love you. I love you more than I love my life. I have always loved you. You mean the world to me, no, you are my whole world. I want to do this with you.”  
Harry blushed. “And I love you too, which is why I can’t let you risk your life for me”  
“Oh, I believe that is my choice to make. I know what I’m doing. I know how terrifying he is, I have met him as well. Don’t try to convince me otherwise, Harry, it won’t work. I have made my choice. I love you, and I want to be with you, and I want to help you. Whatever price I have to pay for it, I’ll pay. I just don’t ever want to lose you again. That would be the only thing I couldn’t take.”  
Harry looked at him a long time. It was obvious that his mind was racing through a million possible replies. “Fine!” he sighed in a defeated voice. “Fine! But only because I couldn’t stand you ever being away from me again”   
Draco blushed “Oh come here, you magnificent being.” He pulled Harry into a long, tender kiss. Their first kiss since year four. It wasn’t a kiss of raw passion like the ones they had shared in their magic room, it was a kiss of deep longing, almost desperation.   
“I thought I would never get to do this again” Harry muttered as they pulled apart.  
“Yes. But you will get to do it many more times now. I won’t leave your side ever again.”  
“Promise me?” Harry asked timidly.   
“I promise.” He took Harry’s hand and kissed it softly. “You are my forever, Harry. We can do this, together. If there is one thing that you-know-who is afraid of, it’s love, and our love is stronger than anything. He doesn’t stand a chance.”  
“It won’t be easy, though, we don’t even know what the other Horcruxes are yet. Dumbledore didn’t leave me much to go on.”  
“We’ll figure it out. Us, together, and your friends Ron and Hermione of course. Yes, it won’t be easy, but Dumbledore thought you would be able to do it. And the old man was anything but naïve. If he believed in you, you can do it.”  
“Thank you, Draco. Thank you for being there for me”  
“I only want to be there for you. I want to be everything you need. For you.” He thought about how different everything would have been if he had never fallen in love with Harry. If he hadn’t been there for him at the tower, if Harry hadn’t been able to talk him down from killing Dumbledore himself. What a terrible thought. That would have been a very different story. But love can truly change a story.  
Harry entwined Draco’s fingers with his own. “You are everything I could need. And so much more than I deserve”.   
“So we will stay together for eternity now?”, Draco asked.   
“Yes, for eternity”  
“Eternity sounds way too short a time if that’s all I get to spend with you” Draco pouted.   
“Oh shut up you beautiful idiot”, Harry giggled “Well be together until time itself ends”  
“Promise?”  
“Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaand that's it! That's the last chapter! Thank you for reading, especially for getting through the first few chapters, I know it wasn't easy.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! I would absolutely love you forever if you followed my tumblr @poetryofyouth and my instagram @katsbakingadventures. Thank you!


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